Market Challenges And Opportunities

Cost constraints for Hospitals and positive environmental impact will drive growth of the single-use medical device reprocessing market

Hospitals across the globe are facing cost pressures due to rise in price of original medical equipment. In the U.S., Obamacare and its associated guidelines might get repealed with the change in government. This could lead to low third-party reimbursement for hospitals, in turn influencing them to adopt cost saving initiatives such as single-use medical device reprocessing. The biggest advantage is that hospitals can reduce the cost associated with medical device to 50%, which becomes a crucial factor when dealing with expensive devices such as catheter and cardiac ablation devices. At present, 250 medical devices are already being processed with 10% of medical devices eligible for single-use medical device reprocessing. In terms of environmental protection, hospitals are able to reduce the medical waste to an estimated 50% by the use of single-use medical device reprocessing. Medical waste treatment not only puts enormous cost pressure on hospitals, but in countries such as U.S., China and Japan, it has become a full-fledged industry. For instance, Ascent, a subsidiary of Stryker Corporation, was able to eliminate 1,684 tons of medical waste from landfills during 2007, with the help of reprocessing. The market penetration for single-use medical device processing is poised to increase in small and mid-sized hospitals due to environmental sustainability and immense cost savings related to reprocessing.

In regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe and South America, there is a lack of regulatory standards is a restraining factor for the growth of single-use medical device reprocessing market. European Union has not mandated guidelines regarding the reprocessing. Individual countries such as Spain, England and France are not in favor of reprocessing. With respect to Asia Pacific, the reuse of single-use medical devices is prevalent with no set of regulations. In countries such as India, Japan and South Korea, there are no government regulations pertaining to single-use medical device reprocessing.