In April 2020, during the first surge of Covid-19 hospitalizations, Kullolli’s hospital faced the grim possibility of reverting to hand-and-scalpel surgeries while it awaited a critical device update by a manufacturer, even though in-house staff were capable of fixing the problem. Ultimately the company allowed it, but only after hours of calls and meetings.
That wasted time and expense could have been avoided if hospitals had been allowed to mend more equipment from the get-go, he says. A bill advancing in the California legislature would make that possible: Sponsored by the California Public Interest Research Group and supported by the California Hospital Association, among other groups, it would require medical manufacturers to publish manuals and make parts and training accessible to hospitals and third-party repair providers.
“It’s been an issue since before the pandemic, but the pandemic highlighted any hole we had in health-care infrastructure,” says Jodiane Tritt, executive vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association. Her organization came out in support of a right-to-repair bill that passed the state senate in March but died in the house.
Read more in Bloomberg.
