The world is producing a record amount of single-use plastic waste, mostly made from polymers created from fossil fuels, despite global efforts to reduce plastic pollution and carbon emissions, according to a new report. While governments around the world have announced policies to reduce the volume of single-use plastic...

Ask any Sterile Processing technician about the most important first step in the decontamination process, they will always repeat this refrain “Cleaning is the most important first step, because if it’s not clean, it cannot be disinfected or sterilized.” SPD professionals have long recognized how difficult it is to clean used devices and instruments post procedure. Especially challenging are complex endoscopes, with small inner channels, valves, and ports. When left in the open-air bioburden and organic material harden...

A recent online article from CNN Health asks – “How many times can you wear pajamas, jeans, and other clothes without washing them? Experts weigh in…” Turns out that the number of times it’s appropriate to wear clothing items without washing them is based more on folklore or a person’s upbringing than professional advice. The short answer — for pajamas as well as other clothes — technically depends...

Did you know that freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the Earth? Nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, but only 2.5 percent of it is fresh, and of that just 1 percent is easily accessible. U.S. hospitals use an average of 570 gallons of water per staffed bed, per day...

Remember the scene in the Graduate when Dustin Hoffman’s future father-in-law tells him to go into PLASTICS, the growing industry at the time, one of mankind’s greatest innovations.  When we started Case Medical thirty years ago manufacturing custom trays out of metal, we were told the same thing.  PLASTIC was the best material for all things in our industry…

Sometimes we get too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole. Few recent scientific discoveries have captured the public’s imagination quite like the wood-wide web — a wispy network of fungal filaments hypothesized to shuttle nutrients and information through the soil and to help forests thrive. Scientists and nonscientists alike have posited that shared fungal networks are ubiquitous in forests around the world...

It is late October, a time when apples are pressed into cider, leaves turn to vibrant autumn colors and Halloween horror movies scare and thrill audiences. While the names of monsters, ghosts and ghouls in these movies change, there are some recurring themes that are common to all of them including dangers lurking in hidden places, unexpected twists, secret weapons and of course, sequels. In a horror movie starring SPD professionals ...

There's a lot to be learned from food science that can be applied to reprocessing medical devices. For example, you should never put meat into a cold pan before cooking, because the meat and even the oil will then stick and burn. Rather pre-heat your cookware before putting anything in it. The same principle of pre-heating holds true for sterilization, if you want to ensure a good outcome...

Thank You! Case Medical would like to take a moment to thank every Sterile Processing professional for the heart and soul you put into your work each day. With your tireless dedication, patients can count on you to keep them safe during a medical procedure with clean, properly processed sterile instruments. With your unwavering adherence to industry...