I do think we need to examine our definitions here - specifically the difference between "single use" and "single user". I'd hate to throw out any disposble double kit, or any manual pump after only ONE use. Mom would need 8-10 of these kits or pumps per day!! Talk about marketing!! (Comments, Diane W.?) Our cost for the disposable kit is half of the Universal kit cost. And the Universal usually gets thrown out upon discharge, too.
We use the disposable Hollister kits for moms whose babies are "short term" poor feeders, i.e. Level II, Rule Out Sepsis, BiliLights for jaundice, etc. where baby is separated from mom for various lengths of time, or needs help getting started and this situation is not expected to last one week at the longest. We will send her home with the manual pump. Often baby goes home before she can get an electric pump from WIC.
My issue with Hollister (solely because that is the company my hospital works with) is that the kit packages do day "Single Use". I could not get the Hollister Rep to say anything specific about how long a mom can use her personal disposable kit. It was like playing "20 Questions". I'd make a statement and he'd say "probably" or "perhaps", or "many people do/say/believe/practice that". Very defensive and noncommittal and noninformative.
So, my conclusion: the kit is sterile before first opening. We instruct mom in using it and let her keep using it, with the goal to get baby fully to breast in a few days. We instruct mom to throw out the disposable kit - not a problem because when baby is home, she doesn't have an electric pump to attach it to. Reason tells you that if Hollister could sterilize it initially, it can be sterilized again by mom for her own use. (The Reasonable Person defense?)
Phyllis in Phx, AZ
---
Breast pumps are mentioned in this news story from the Health Clips email
newsletter published by the Saskatchewan's Health Quality Council
Canadian hospitals call for restrictions on single-use devices
Lancet News
Disposable medical devices designed for single use should not be used more
than once, says an association of 160 Ontario-based Canadian hospitals.
The hospital group is calling for formal restrictions on the number of
times such instruments--which include ventilator circuits, biopsy forceps,
and breast pumps--can be used. 2 years ago a Canadian government survey
concluded that medical devices sold for single use are probably being reused
several times. The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) cited a report
prepared for it by Michael Gardan, Director of Infection Prevention Control
at Toronto's multi-hospital University Health Network, when it called for an
end to in-hospital reprocessing of single-use devices. The organistaion also
wants strict regulations --similar to US laws that allow reprocessing only
at certified centres--to be imposed.
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/journal.isa
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