Re: [VFB] Scissors-cost of disposables

[Joyce Westphal]

Since you asked, the cost of a disposable set to the center is about 7:00. The time to clean a scissors ( all instruments must be washed before autoclaving) costs us minimum of 10.00 an hour, then the cost of the autoclave wrap is $5.00 a large sheet to wrap the whole pan you need one sheet. then there is the cost of the water for the autoclave and the cost of the electricity to run it ( think of the heat alone as a giant heating element similar to in your oven) to bring the boiler to steam. The cost of autoclaving the instruments comes to well over 15.00 by the time you figure in the cost of the person doing it and the direct costs.  And that doesn't account for the cost of the set itself..$27.00 for a good needleholder, lowest Pakistan quality. So, in answer to your question,  though I'm not in the board room, I do know the costs of equipment and autoclaving and this explains why a $7.00 disposable set is cheaper. In addition, one must consider that if, by chance, it didn't get clean and there was some contaminated blood on it and the autoclave, though tested each day (cost about 5.00 a day for each autoclave to run the tests) happened not to get hot enough with enough pressure to kill the bugs and someone got hepatitis and there was someone getting sick as a result..or heaven forbid, a lengthy lawsuit following that..well, you now know why disposables are used. No liability for the hospital or surgical center, less over all cost. Joyce