[capnahab]

"Example: My wife is in surgery, and has told me how surgical tools often come billed as a set. Rather than being able to bill for a single tool, if an operation requires another duplicate of the same tool the surgeon will often just open an entire new set." That could be because the instrument required has been sterilised as part of a set and is not sterilised individually. This is a common problem in the UK where I work (as a surgeon), - the logistics of individually tracking all single packaged instruments would be unworkable and hugely costly.So they are grouped as a set for a particular operation.

[codekansas]

Yeah I think that's why in the US as well, but I think it reflects a lack of sense of urgency for figuring out how to do it more cheaply. Compared to hospitals in Vietnam, for example, where sanitization standards are much lower, they do a lot more creative stuff to save on costs. It leads to worse outcomes, of course, but if they insisted on the highest quality care for everyone then a lot fewer people would get care in the first place

[matjazdrolc]

Are we talking about metal instruments that are later resterilized and reused? How much waste does this create, finnancially and in terms of material?

[kdtop3]

Yes, surgical tool sets are often reusable after resterilization. But there is also a large volume of single-use products.