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Newsletter 2004 issue 1 |
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Try It,
You’ll Like It
Wine shops offer tastings. Car dealers encourage
test drives. Oriental rug dealers let customers take carpets
home for a day. All of these vendors know that the more familiar
you become with their wares, the more likely you will be satisfied
after you purchase them.
Buying equipment for your company isn’t
so different. When considering new equipment ask vendors if
you can test it in your facility before making a purchase.
Vendors who believe in their equipment know that a trial run
will reduce your uncertainty.
Equipment on trial
The histology department at Methodist Hospital, a 350-bed
facility in St. Louis Park, wanted to start recovering spent
formalin. Formalin is a fixative used to preserve tissue samples
in health care laboratories. Although formalin waste can generally
be disposed of into the sanitary sewer once tissue samples
have been removed, some municipalities have talked about banning
the practice because formaldehyde and methanol make the waste
toxic.
Lab staff looked at equipment from several
companies and narrowed down the choices to two. Both vendors
let the hospital borrow their equipment for a trial period.
“The vendors worked really well with us,” said Patti
Traphagan, technical specialist at Methodist. “We definitely
learned more by trying out the equipment.”
By testing the equipment, lab staff discovered
that one unit was easier to use and had less chance of operator
error. It also fit better in the small available space.
“The other equipment recycled five
gallons of formalin at a time. That’s a lot for us weak,
little women to lift,” said Traphagan. “Trying out
the equipment helped us decide which would be easier for us
to use.”
Following the 30-day trial, Methodist’s
lab purchased two formalin filtering units. One for neutral
buffered formalin (NBF) and another for alcoholic formalin.
The equipment recovered 100 percent of the formalin. In the
first four months of using the filter equipment, the lab decreased
the amount of concentrated NBF it ordered by 50 percent. The
lab expects to save about $5,000 per year using the formalin
recovery equipment.
Prevent buyers remorse. See if you can try
out equipment before committing to a purchase. A trial run
will help ensure that it’ll work for you in the long
run.
Formalin recovery
Recycling formalin is usually economical when using about
10 gallons per week. It keeps the toxic chemical out of the
sewer, reduces formalin purchase costs, improves employee
safety and reduces regulatory compliance burden. For more
information on formalin recovery see the MnTAP fact sheet
Formalin Recovery in Health
Care Labs [#20].
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