A surgical instrument reprocessing service recently established by Vernon-Carus is already proving its value.
Reviews of surgical instrument decontamination provision in England over four years by NHS Estates highlighted that many facilities did not meet the required standard and, in some cases, fell significantly short.
As a consequence, the National Strategy for Modernising Decontamination Services was launched in July 2003. This required that all healthcare sites undertaking reprocessing of reusable surgical instruments were to comply with the standards as defined by the Medical Devices Directive 2007. This was to ensure the availability of high quality services for the foreseeable future.
In support of this initiative, Vernon- Carus made a major investment with the inclusion of a 3,000 m2 decontamination facility within its new Matrix Park site at Chorley. A new instrument reprocessing service provision from the company under the Assure brand is now fully operational and has passed the audit for compliance to the Medical Device Directive.
Following the accreditation of the Assure instrument reprocessing facility, Vernon- Carus is now serving new customers. Since commissioning, interest in the first operational reprocessing “Supercentre” in England “has been phenomenal”, says Val O’Brien, director of technical services, who adds: “We are in a position to solve the instrument reprocessing issues facing hospitals in one go.” The First Trust Hospital in Preston was the first recipient of the Assure service provision, and Gavin Royle, clinical services manager at First Trust, says he is delighted with the service from Vernon- Carus and commented: “It has been a seamless transition moving to Assure and the hospital is now in the process of evaluating other product opportunities that Vernon-Carus have in their portfolio.”
With the large product offering from Vernon-Carus including swabs, surgical instruments, drapes and gowns, procedure trays, wrapping materials and a wide range of other items, the company is able to serve new decontamination accounts with other product needs. Tim Eaglen, marketing communications manager, Vernon-Carus, states: “We are now regularly serving our Assure customers with reprocessed trays.
We will use the same vehicles and delivery schedules to supply our vast range of other healthcare products. The cost benefits this gives our growing Assure customer base are proving very attractive indeed.”
Other customers for Assure have had their initial service deliveries over the last few weeks and the business is destined to grow rapidly over the coming months as the pressure to meet the MDD compliance increases and the Healthcare Commission reinforces the standards required for decontamination.
SUCCESS
The success of Assure is proof that Vernon-Carus is aggressive in its determination to adjust to current and future market and customer requirements.
Simple and more cost-effective ways of ordering routine single-use items has long been high on the priority schedule for hospitals. The more products that hospital directors can purchase from a single source the better, especially if that source can also provide a fully compliant tray service as part of the same service provision. Aside from the vast range of single-use items Vernon-Carus already offers, the company is able to provide its customers with the Concept Procedure Pack system as part of the Assure service. Concept Procedure Packs meet the surgical user’s needs for single-use components in one sterile pack and provide a convenient way of managing surgical interventions.
Vernon-Carus assembles Concept Procedure Packs within its vast cleanrooms at the Matrix Park site. The need for hospitals to order individual products from a large number of suppliers is replaced with a single Concept Procedure Pack from Vernon-Carus. Components are sourced from a wide and diverse supplier base and can be tailored to meet individual needs that include delivery options which will meet the users’ operating requirements. Concept Procedure Packs are made for all surgical specialities and, when combined with the Assure sterile service provision, create a robust and effective supply chain for the customer.
Surgical staff and other personnel have become more aware of the benefits of custom procedure trays (CPTs) in recent years, and Vernon-Carus is in a position with the Concept Procedure Pack offering to ensure that they receive those advantages.
The pack:
• Decreases pre-operative set-up time.
• Increases staff efficiency.
• Reduces quality concerns.
• Lowers supply costs.
• Reduces waste.
• Decreases additional supply inventories.
• Improves and makes simpler the tracking of contained components.
The traditional management of operating room supplies would have revolved around ordering individual products, often from a variety of sources, followed by painstaking assembly and set-up of the necessary components. As the serving of surgical instrumentation requirements and practices advances, so the process and setting up becomes evermore difficult. Vernon-Carus has kept pace with change and provides innovative solutions to the problems the advances have given hospitals.
Continuing evolution
In the 36 years since Vernon-Carus was formed from the merger of Vernon & Company and Alexander Carus, it has built up an enviable reputation in the healthcare manufacturing and supply sectors. Vernon- Carus is the home for leading brands such as Detex X-ray detectable gauze swabs, Azo infection control products, BERT endoscopic retrieval bags and many more innovative products.
The company’s efficiency and innovation is applied widely, with co-operative strategic partnerships and subsidiaries in Europe, the Mediterranean and Australasia.
Toward the end of 2005, the company re-located to its state-of-the-art manufacturing and office facility at Matrix Park. The move is enabling the company to continue its evolution in-line with the changing structure of the healthcare market.
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