Healthcare waste has the potential to infect hospital patients, healthcare workers and the general public. While roughly 85% of the amount of waste generated in the healthcare industry is non-hazardous, the remaining 15% is hazardous and may be infectious, toxic or radioactive. That’s according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which cites particular concern about infection with HIV, hepatitis B and C – only a few of many possible infectious diseases – for which there is strong evidence of transmission from improper healthcare waste management.
Obviously, medical personnel, especially in emergency situations, aren’t always privy to whether or not a patient’s fluids are infectious, and outdated manual fluid handling methods, which require hand carrying and emptying filled fluid canisters, present an exposure risk and potential liability.
Skyline Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: SKLN) is in the market to buck these risks with its fully automated, patented, FDA-cleared waste fluid disposal system that virtually eliminates staff exposure to blood, irrigation fluid and other potentially infectious fluids found in the healthcare environment.
The company’s STREAMWAY® System fully automates the collection, measurement and disposal of waste fluids. Aside from providing a measure of safety against biohazard exposure, the system is designed to: reduce overhead costs to hospitals and surgical centers; improve compliance with Occupational State and Health Association (OSHA) and other regulatory agency safety guidelines; improve efficiency in the operating room, and radiology and endoscopy departments; and help eliminate the approximately 50 million potentially disease-infected canisters dumped into U.S. landfills each year.
Installed in or on the wall, STREAMWAY features an illuminated touch screen that provides the user control over surgical suction levels and displays automated measurement of volumes. The single patient procedure filter and tissue trap both prevent cross contamination and allow for tissue retrieval. When it comes time to clean up, the user detaches the filter, connects the cleaning solution bottle, and activates the five-minute clean cycle using the touch screen.
In one case study, STREAMWAY user Fran Hahn, BSN, RN, CNOR at Huntingdon Valley Surgery Center in Pennsylvania stated, “I cringe when I have to do an arthroscopic procedure in one of the rooms without STREAMWAY. It’s so much easier and safer to use than canisters.”
Read the entire cast study here: http://www.skylinemedical.com/wp-content/uploads/STREAMWAY_CaseStudy_HuntingdonValleySC.pdf
Unlike Hahn’s experience, Skyline has found that the majority of radiology and imaging rooms, in particular, are not even aware that automated fluid disposal technology exists. To counter this finding, Skyline recently partnered with the Association for Radiologic & Imaging Nursing (“ARIN”) to market Skyline products and services to medical professionals performing paracentesis and thoracentesis procedures.
“Our research has shown that most radiology and imaging rooms do not currently use, nor are they aware of automated fluid disposal technology, despite the major potential safety and cost benefits. As it is the nurses and technologists that often perform these procedures and can help influence purchasing decisions, we expect our partnership with ARIN to create new sales opportunities,” Josh Kornberg, president and CEO of Skyline, stated in the news release announcing the partnership.
As an ARIN sponsor, Skyline has access to nurses in the imaging and radiology space, and, on April 3, will have the opportunity to attend the ARIN Spring Convention in Vancouver, where the company’s sales representatives will demonstrate Skyline products to nurses, technologists and other industry decision makers.
In the first nine months of 2015, Skyline shipped and sold 15 of its STREAMWAY Systems, and by November had initiated 12 new trials of the system in eight different U.S. states. From past experience, the company’s trial strategy yields significant success.
“Our sales strategy encourages hospital and surgical centers to trial the STREAMWAY, as we are confident that the unique benefits of our exposure prevention system will be quickly recognized throughout the facilities. This approach has proven to be successful with our trial-to-sale conversion rate standing at an impressive 98%,” Kornberg stated. “There are currently more than 48 hospital and surgical centers using our STREAMWAY System in the United States. We are looking to rapidly expand our customer base through the implementation of an aggressive sales and marketing strategy over the next year, which will include a dedicated salesforce and a network of distributors.”
This “aggressive sales and marketing strategy” includes international expansion, and Skyline has started the process of filing international patent applications in Canada and select European countries for the technologies and processes applied in the STREAMWAY System.
For its domestic focus, Skyline is gaining mounting confidence in the capability and acceptance of its technology.
“Our success selling to major hospitals indicates that medical centers are shifting away from, and we are displacing, alternative fluid management solutions that have been in place for many years. For us to have achieved this, despite our limited sales and marketing capabilities, truly validates the quality and effectiveness of the STREAMWAY™ System. The STREAMWAY is currently installed in a wide variety of procedure rooms, including surgery, interventional radiology and endoscopy suites, demonstrating very significant market potential for the product. Moreover, we are starting to see repeat orders from some of these customers,” Kornberg stated in a previous news release.
As more medical facilities are seeing, STREAMWAY eliminates one of the most dangerous aspects of being a healthcare professional: handling surgical fluid canisters and their contents. With rising market acceptance, Skyline continues to focus on establishing STREAMWAY as the premier surgical fluid disposal device, providing an unprecedented standard of safety, efficiency and environmental benefits for hospitals and surgical centers worldwide.
For more information, visit www.skylinemedical.com
