At the 12th Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven Conference + Future of Spine in Chicago on June 13, Jeff Summers, MD, physician at NewSouth NeuroSpine PMR Center in Flowood, Miss., discussed the economics of single-dose vials at ASCs.
Reusing single-dose vials is prohibited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for infection control reasons. However, a number of facilities in recent years misused such vials and suffered infection outbreaks.
While single-dose vials are intended to be used only once, they are largely only available in 50 cc, although many times only 1 cc to 5 cc's are required, said Dr. Summers. There are incredible amounts of waste. Even with multi-dose vials, the CDC says they should be dedicated to a single patient whenever possible, he said.
So why aren't smaller doses manufactured, Dr. Summers asked. To do so, he said, they have to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One has to do safety and efficacy studies, a timely and expensive process. "There is no financial incentive to introduce smaller vials," he said.
Physicians and facilities are stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of single-dose vials. To combat this, Dr. Summers suggested joining a group purchasing organization to negotiate costs for the necessary evils of the 50-cc vials.
"Even if your ASC is large, you're not going to be ale to call up one of these companies and get one of these products and get a discount on it," he said. "If you and 100 other ASCs band together to do the same thing [through a GPO], you can take advantage of this."
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Reusing single-dose vials is prohibited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for infection control reasons. However, a number of facilities in recent years misused such vials and suffered infection outbreaks.
While single-dose vials are intended to be used only once, they are largely only available in 50 cc, although many times only 1 cc to 5 cc's are required, said Dr. Summers. There are incredible amounts of waste. Even with multi-dose vials, the CDC says they should be dedicated to a single patient whenever possible, he said.
So why aren't smaller doses manufactured, Dr. Summers asked. To do so, he said, they have to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One has to do safety and efficacy studies, a timely and expensive process. "There is no financial incentive to introduce smaller vials," he said.
Physicians and facilities are stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of single-dose vials. To combat this, Dr. Summers suggested joining a group purchasing organization to negotiate costs for the necessary evils of the 50-cc vials.
"Even if your ASC is large, you're not going to be ale to call up one of these companies and get one of these products and get a discount on it," he said. "If you and 100 other ASCs band together to do the same thing [through a GPO], you can take advantage of this."