This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.

"Primary research objective is to obtain information on the current situation in Canada on the reprocessing and re-use of SUDs. The research question is: What are current practices in Canadian institutions for reprocessing of SUDs? A separate Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) report, published concurrently, addresses the evidence on the safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of reprocessed SUDs." (executive summary)

Survey responses suggest that most hospitals (72%) do not reprocess SUDs. The reasons given for not reprocessing include concerns about patients' safety, legal liability, and absence of regulation. Of the 28% of responding hospitals that reprocess SUDs, most (85%) do so in-house. Among hospitals that reprocess SUDs, 40% do not have a written policy, and 12% do not have an incident-reporting mechanism, suggesting a need for improved standards of documentation in this area.

http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/CRDWeb/ShowRecord.asp?ID=12009103780

http://www.inahta.org/Publications/Briefs-Checklist-Impact/2008/3787/