Hospitals Wasting Millions in Unused Surgical Supplies

BALTIMORE — Major hospitals across the U.S. are collectively throwing away at least $15 million a year in unused operating room surgical supplies, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

Doctors said in a research report published Oct. 16 in the World Journal of Surgery that these supplies could be salvaged and used to ease shortages, improve surgical care and boost public health in developing countries.

“Perfectly good, entirely sterile and, above all, much-needed surgical supplies are routinely discarded in American operating rooms,” said lead investigator Dr. Richard Redett, a pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, in the report. “We hope the results of our study will be a wakeup call for hospitals and surgeons across the country to rectify this wasteful practice by developing systems that collect and ship unused materials to places that desperately need them.”

Report authors noted that the act of surgical supply waste is nothing new, as several organizations run donation programs for leftover supplies, but their efforts would be more successful if they were made standard surgical protocol. Researchers said the waste of surgical supplies stems from a common practice of bundling surgical materials in a way that streamlines operating room readiness and efficiency, but once opened, everything that is unused in that bundle is thrown away.

Study co-author Eric Wan, B.S., a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins University currently doing post-graduate training at the National Institutes of Health, said donation programs are “acutely needed not only to help address serious needs in resource poor-settings, but also to minimize the significant environmental burden at home institutions. This really is a win-win situation.”

Study authors based their research on an existing program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital that takes unused surgical supplies to two surgical centers in Ecuador. The authors tracked 19 high-demand surgical items donated to the hospitals over three years then figured that if 232 American hospitals saved and donated unused surgical supplies, they would generate 2 million pounds of materials worth at least $15 million in a year. When the authors examined outcomes for 33 Ecuadorian patients, they found that donated surgical supplies prevented, on average, eight years of disability per patient.

In the study, materials topping the 19-item surgical supplies list included gauze, disposable syringes, sutures and surgical towels. However, the investigators said, it is important to tailor shipping to the specific needs of each hospital. Matching of donor leftovers to recipient need, they said, will prevent unnecessary shipping costs and avoid creating medical waste locally. In addition, the receiving hospital must have a demonstrated capability and the equipment to clean and sterilize the shipped materials before use in the operating room.

“Saving and shipping these materials is truly a low-hanging fruit enterprise, a simple strategy that could have a dramatic impact on surgical outcomes and public health in resource-poor settings and truly change people’s lives,” Redett said.