from $20 per blade on
the low end all the way
up to $40 to $50 on the
very high end. Even
assuming your facility is
purchasing disposables
at the lowest end of that
range, it's going to cost
you $60,000 to purchase
knives for 3,000
cataract cases.
But you can't simply do an apples-to-apples comparison of reusable
diamond blades versus disposable steel blades. "When you're compar-
ing the cost of single-use instruments to the cost of disposables, you
have to look at cost of labor and the sterilization costs of reprocessing
instruments," says Robert S. Bailey, Jr., MD, director of cataract and
primary eye care service at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa.
"You may think the cost of disposable instruments is more, but when
you factor in labor and sterilization, you may very well find that there
are actually some savings there."
You'll also want to consider facility size. If you're a smaller facility,
you may be able to dig into your data, determine your surgeon's pref-
erence and skill level, and offer the option of either disposable or
multi-use items. But if you're a larger, high-volume center, purchasing
both types of instruments can be a logistical nightmare, so you're
probably better off standardizing to single-use options.
Case volume is also an important consideration. Reusable dia-
mond blades can be extremely economical and maintain their
sharpness if you take proper care of them. However, they do break
easily. "If you're doing 500 cases a year, and you go through three
8 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
• BLADE OF CHOICE The multi-use versus disposable choice in ophthalmic
knives often comes down to how the instrument feels in a surgeon's hand.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
