Woodstock General Hospital has adopted an innovative program to reduce medical waste in partnership with Stryker. This program, available to hospitals across the country, has enabled Woodstock Hospital to divert more than 500 lbs of medical device waste from landfills and saved them $87,000 in supply costs. Stryker provides waste disposal for single-use devices, including ligatures, trocars, and compression devices (among many others), via specialized bins in the operating rooms. These materials are taken to Stryker’s sorting facility where they are completely disassembled and go through a dynamic proprietary reprocessing structure, which includes biological sanitization, reconstruction, and 100% function testing of each device. Woodstock Hospital utilizes this program to drive significant green cost savings through the purchasing of the reprocessed devices at a discounted rate, saving approximately 40% over current budgetary spending while giving single-use products a second life cycle. A fantastic way to reduce single-use medical waste, all while saving money on disposal systems and products.

Woodstock General Hospital and Stryker are demonstrating that reducing medical waste is possible and profitable, saving upwards of $87,000 to date through utilizing 1,390 reprocessed devices. “Woodstock is the only hospital in the entire Waterloo-Kitchener-Cambridge region to be fully utilizing the program,” says David Brown Sr. Provincial Sales Representative “They are true leaders in this space.” reading the positive environmental and financial impacts.

It began in 2022 as a pilot program to help reduce hospital single-use waste and operating costs. Chris Marion, Director of Capital Projects at the hospital, learned that St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto had taken on a partnership with Stryker and wanted to bring this to Woodstock. Since then, The Woodstock Hospital team has been providing education and training to staff. “ Reducing our environmental impacts is important to all our staff and it is our collective effort that makes the program a success.” Chris Marion Director of Capital Projects said. 

In 2022, the first year of the program, the hospital diverted a total of 240 lbs. Now, only over halfway through 2023, diversion has surpassed 2022 levels with a current total of 277 lbs. This collaboration also brings significant cost savings through two avenues. First, Stryker replaces existing yellow sharps disposal bins that hospitals pay to have disposed of with free green bins. Stryker then takes on the responsibility of collecting, sorting, and sanitizing materials. After leaving the hospital, materials go through a vigorous series of processing in which materials are broken down into core components, rebuilt, and repeatedly tested. The hospital can then purchase the refurbished equipment at a discounted rate. Additionally from the instant savings on yellow bins, the more waste provided, the greater the opportunity for purchasing remanufactured single-use equipment at a discounted rate. As a result, Woodstock General Hospital continues to save thousands of dollars.

For more information on Stryker, please contact David Brown or visit their website.

Proud to have Woodstock Hospital as a member of the SWR network and thrilled to celebrate their sustainability success!