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posted by martyb on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the Oh-shit dept.

Colon and rectal surgeon Sanjiv Patankar allegedly washed and reused catheters that are inserted into patients' rectum during medical procedures. The instruments, which are used to examine patients with fecal incontinence, constipation, and other possible disorders, are supposed to be thrown away after a single use.

Patankar, who practiced in East Brunswick, [New Jersey] allegedly instructed medical assistants to wash the instruments in soapy water after use, soak them in bleach solutions, and then rinse before air-drying them. The doctor also reportedly ordered to continue using a catheter that has started to break down due to overbleaching.

In a hearing conducted Dec. 19, the state said that documented evidence appears to show that between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, Patankar's office performed 82 procedures but only five catheters were used over that period.

Source: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/217801/20171230/doctor-accused-of-reusing-one-use-anal-catheters-on-multiple-patients.htm


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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:00PM (7 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:00PM (#645845) Journal

    The problem with it is: you've got M.D.s who know f-all about device safety and even sterilization making judgement calls about how, and how long they can reuse a device.

    This is complicated by another problem somewhere. I don't know whether it's strange regulation, or merely manufacturers to blame, but last time I had surgery done, the site of the surgical procedure was marked with a sharpie marker covered in warning labels about how Federal Law Prohibits Re-Use and that the user must Discard After Use.

    I pulled it out of the trash and used it to label burned CDs and DVDs until it ran out (years later).

    Seems to have been a thing about how the manufacturer can't guarantee that it's sterile after the first use--I get that--but that statement applies to nearly everything in the hospital that's not disposable. We don't throw the hospital away and rebuild it between patients because that would be stupid. This is sort of like that.

    Because of this non-sustainable disposables-mentality, there is not a culture of proper, safe sterilization being encouraged.

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:44PM (6 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:44PM (#645936) Journal

    Partially yes, but also partially no. Bacteria are evolving to evade more and more of our sanitary procedures. Single use sharpies are a bit over the top, but using them only on one patient is quite a reasonable procedure. And we're approaching the point were the hospitals may not be single use, but the room furnishing are. This is usually excessive caution, but not always. Many iatrogenic diseases are spread by insufficient sanitary procedures, and some have been traced to bacteria that lived on the curtains of the room between patients.

    Caution: I am not associated with any hospital, so I can't tell you what current procedures are. But some bacteria are evolving to become immune to the alcohol hand sanitizers, so expect an increase in the use of plastic gloves.

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    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:02PM (4 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:02PM (#645944)

      It really does get down to the question of: you're charging $15,000 for this procedure, do you want to save $5 on a reusable sharpie when that puts a 0.1% chance of infection and bad outcome which might lead to $100K+ in malpractice settlement? Far better to charge $15,100 for the procedure and use the $5 disposable sharpie.

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      • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:15PM (3 children)

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:15PM (#645950) Journal

        the $5 disposable sharpie.

        Well, they're more like $1.00 - $1.50 [bettymills.com] in lots of 50, manufacturer guaranteed sterile, bundled with a free sterile ruler and a pack of blank labels.

        So maybe this is a bad example.

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:10PM (2 children)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:10PM (#645991)

          they're more like $1.00 - $1.50

          did you find an itemized line item for it on your surgery bill? They have started doing something sensible like charging $100 for miscellaneous stuff which catches things like the sharpie, but if it's itemized, I doubt it's less than $5.

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          • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:27PM (1 child)

            by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:27PM (#646006) Journal

            itemized line item for it on your surgery bill?

            No, that's just what it would cost the hospital if they bought from the link above.

            • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:33PM

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:33PM (#646011)

              that's just what it would cost the hospital if they bought from the link above.

              That's the purchase price, then there's the general accounting overhead, cost of storage, cost to ensure safe delivery to the patient, cost of damaged goods, etc. etc. etc. - those are the wonderful accounting methods that come up with a price of $10 for a Tylenol capsule delivered to you postoperatively.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:17AM (#646111)

      Caution: I am not associated with any hospital, so I can't tell you what current procedures are. But some bacteria are evolving to become immune to the alcohol hand sanitizers, so expect an increase in the use of plastic gloves.

      You sure about this? I didn't think alcohol was something bacteria could become immune to.

      A google search only leads to a recent New Scientist news article on this, but nothing else of note, and the New Scientist article is paywalled, so I can't see what it says.