Impacting 99.9% of the Hospital Budget

TORONTO, Nov. 30, 2012 /CNW/ - Doug Friesen, President of Getinge Canada Limited presented at the Vancouver Innovation and Sustainability seminar where he spoke about the opportunities to transform cost into healthcare.

Friesen stated, "Canadian hospitals spend $53 billion per year*.  Less than 0.1% percent of their budget is spent on capital equipment used in the Medical Device Reprocessing Department, MDRD.  All vendors of medical supplies, implants and capital are under significant pressure to reduce cost by virtue of the procurement process.  Reducing cost in the 0.1% will have little if any impact on the overall Hospital budget."

The MDRD is responsible for cleaning, disinfecting, wrapping the right instrument sets and ensuring they are sterile and ready for the next case. This is an essential service for all high quality surgical procedures.

"We asked ourselves, how can we positively impact the other 99.9 percent of the hospital budget?" said Doug Friesen, President of Getinge Canada Limited.

Getinge Canada Limited provided an unrestricted grant to conduct a study at the Sunnybrook HSC in Toronto.  It started in 2008 were the Getinge 88 Turbo - Washer Disinfector system was installed at Sunnybrook HSC in Toronto.  A retrospective study was designed to compare the new technology with the old replaced system.

In 2009 a Paper was published in Healthcare Quarterly authored by Abdool Karim MD, MBA, BSc entitled, " Innovative Technology Conserves resources and generates saving."

The results were very impressive:

• Water consumption reduced by 7.7 Million litres
• Waste water reduced by a similar amount
• Electricity consumption reduced by 9.5 kW per cycle
• No WSIB claims since installation
• Reduction in part-time / over time
• Productivity up 30%

Total savings   $342K in one year.

This paper was presented at CADTH the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health in 2010- and was recognized as best poster.

Earlier this year Getinge Canada Limited provided a grant to re-validate the data published in 2009.

The initial results look to be slightly better than reported in 2009.

• Productivity improved by 45%
• Total savings were just over $400K

"I am very pleased that the data originally peer reviewed and published in 2009, has been revalidated.  Hospitals now have a clear option, to invest in innovative reprocessing technology and realize high quality outcomes and significant savings to their hospital budget," stated Doug Friesen, President Getinge Canada Limited.

*CIHI

About Getinge Canada Limited

Getinge Canada Limited is a member of Getinge AB, a publicly-listed, Swedish-based group of companies. Worldwide, GETINGE ranks among the leading providers of disinfectors and sterilizers within the healthcare and life sciences segments. Since its foundation in 1904, Getinge Infection Control has stood for innovation and technological progress in the field of disinfection and sterilization. Together with the other two business areas, Extended Care (ARJOHUNTLEIGH) and Medical Systems (MAQUET), the entire Getinge Group focuses on state-of-the-art medical technology.

GETINGE GROUP: www.getingegroup.com  Getinge Infection Control: www.getinge.com

Image with caption: "Doug Friesen, President of Getinge Canada Limited (CNW Group/Getinge Canada Limited)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20121130_C5025_PHOTO_EN_21387.jpg

SOURCE: Getinge Canada Limited