WASTE NOT Supplies can still be useful, even if you can't use them during surgery.

TRAINING DAY
Surgical Supplies: Down But Not Out

Costs can go through the roof when surgical supplies hit the floor and sterility is compromised. But you can recoup some of that potential waste by saving those tools and using them for other purposes. In my 19 years as a surgical technologist, I've seen it happen many times. Whether it's a nervous pre-op nurse, an inexperienced student or just someone having a bad day, supplies get dropped or knocked off the surgical back table and have to be put out of commission. Sometimes someone opens the wrong supply, or a surgery gets canceled at the last minute. All of those situations are potentially wasteful if you automatically throw those things away. Plus, if I need to open new sterile supplies when I'm training new employees, there's additional waste.

So instead of just tossing the supplies that can't be used, I add them to what I call my training tray, or we send them to a local college for their training classes. The spoiled supplies aren't wasted, and I don't have to open new packages to conduct my training sessions.

Patra Luangsuwan, CST
Lakeshore Surgery Center
Croswell, Mich.
[email protected]