The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 1.7 million Americans will get a drug-resistant infection from a hospital each year, approximately 100,000 of them will die. Unfortunately, a majority of these infections are caused by Doctors, nurses and other health care providers who are often reusing medical devices, including surgical forceps, endoscopes, stethoscopes and other equipment used in the treatment and examination of multiple patients. When the proper steps are not followed when sterilizing equipment, it can be disaster for the patient and their family.

The risk for serious infection greatly increases when medical professionals do not take the proper precautions when sterilizing equipment. Below are just a few of the infections:

• Septic arthritis
• Staph infections
• Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (P.A.)

Fever, Coughing, Shortness of Breath and even Chest pains are just a few of the symptoms that can appear initially. If these symptoms progress, they can turn into life threatening situations like Pneumonia or Septicemia.

Many medical procedures allow for the use of Reusable medical devices, including:

• Arthroscopic surgery
• Colonoscopy
• Bronchoscopy
• Esophagogastroduodenoscopy
• Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography

Many medical devices are virtually impossible to completely sterilize because of their faulty designs.  Since the design has issues, it makes it very hard to properly disassemble the equipment to insure that the entire device has been sterilized. Similarly, manufacturers’ instructions for proper cleaning often are too generic and not based on real-world testing.