Surgical Instrument Repair & Replacement

How the trays you use can make a positive impact on your budget and patients

SummaryAn instrument protection system can help keep fragile items in the best possible working condition for use in surgery. They also play a major

role in reducing instrument repair and replacement costs.

Facilities can save time, resources, and money properly organizing and protecting surgical instrument sets.

Impact on Repair360 degree protection keeps instruments in place, and prevents the instrument from

striking the basket, tray, or other instruments. An instrument tray with a specific holder for each instrument allows the procedure set to be transported to the

decontamination area and cleaned and disinfected safely, avoiding being dulled or damaged while in a basin or dropped on the floor.

Properly protected procedure sets will also minimize damage caused through the sterilization and transportation process.

Impact on ReplacementKeeping instrument sets organized as they arrive to and

during surgery is often overlooked as necessary or critical. Allowing for rapid identification of instruments helps prevent

avoidable mistakes. An organized tray is also convenient during post-surgery instrument counts and helps to keep the

set together to avoid lost instruments. This is also beneficial to the sterile processing department during decontamination and

tray preparation for sterilization.

Protection of surgical instrumentation during and after surgical use minimizes damage which has a lasting impact on

replacement of frequently damaged instruments.

Impact on Patient SafetyA strong and durable tray, like lightweight aluminum, allow for better

thermal transfer over other materials. A large amount of perforations in trays provide valuable access of liquids and sterilants, for better cleaning efficiency in an automated washer, and better sterilant

penetration.

Soft silicone holders add cushion when holding the instrument in the optimum position for drainage and sterilization. To maximize

penetration some parts should have ventilation allowing sterilant directly to the instrument.

A Closer Look into Facility Costs

A Minneapolis metro area hospital preforming an average of nearly 1000 surgeries a month spends in excess of $300,000 a year for

instrument repair and replacement.

The facility looked into eight categories of commonly used and repaired instruments and found an average repair cost of $2768.75 per

instrument. Repairing the instruments 3-5 times a year and replacing them once because they were too damaged to repair quickly accounted

for a large portion of the budget.

Implementing a strategy to improve instrument trays that better organize and protect instruments can immediately impact frequent repairs and

reduce excessive costs.

Facilities Eight Common Repair Categories

$0.00

$1,000.00

$2,000.00

$3,000.00

$4,000.00

$5,000.00

$6,000.00Average Cost of Repair Per Category

Facilities Micro Instrument Costs

While some basic micro instruments can be sharpened and/or repaired relatively inexpensively ($10-75), their replacement costs can be

enormous. Fine and delicate micro instruments are notorious for bent or broken tips and edges.

$0.00 $200.00 $400.00 $600.00 $800.00 $1,000.00 $1,200.00 $1,400.00 $1,600.00

Rhoton Merz Suction

Decker Disc Rongeurs

Micro Needle Holders

Titanium Micro Fcps .7mm Tips

Micro Fcps w/Teeth

Micro Instruments Replacement Costs

ConclusionHow you care for your instruments from the time they are presented for surgery to the time they spend in sterile storage will affect the cost of

repair and replacement. Safe, organized, and secure tray systems help reduce damage and keep instruments in their finest presentation.