Sales Reps in The Operating Room – There is Room and Need for Them (Policy & Medicine)
A recent article in the Washington Post described how company representatives for medical device companies are allowed to participate in operations. Rather than focusing on the impact and legitimate reasons why such representatives are permitted entrance into the operating rooms, the author of the article chooses to focus on meaningless details and one negative case.
The article does not acknowledge that most representatives who work in operating rooms carry at least three separate credentialing certificates: a blood borne pathogens card, an OR protocol card and a HIPPA compliance card. In order for these representatives to become certified to enter the OR, they must successfully complete class work and exams administered by independent training organizations.
Seemingly, the author’s progress with discussing one particular salesman who works with Kyphon, a manufacturer of medical devices used to repair fractured vertebrae. As the article itself states, the salesmen who entered the ORs was “doing his part to advance a new procedure called kyphoplasty.”
The article uses this p...
