Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast
Welcome to "Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast, the podcast dedicated to elevating the field of sterile processing and surgical services! In an industry where precision and care intersect, we believe that knowledge is power. Our mission is to empower, encourage, and motivate every professional engaged in the transformative world of healthcare.
Join us each week as we delve into enlightening discussions that shine a light on best practices, emerging innovations, and the critical role sterile processing plays in patient safety. Whether you're a seasoned expert or just starting your journey, our panels and expert guests will provide invaluable insights through engaging conversations and real-world stories.
From the nuances of instrument handling to the latest in sterilization techniques, we cover it all. Expect thought-provoking interviews, educational segments, and motivating content designed to inspire you to elevate your craft. Together, let’s foster a community that champions excellence in surgical services and celebrates the unsung heroes of healthcare.
Tune in to where expertise meets passion, and every episode empowers you to make a difference in the operating room and beyond.
Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast
The $50 Billion Dollar Problem: Why Automation is Sterile Processing's Future
The hidden $50 billion hemorrhage destroying hospital finances has finally been exposed. In this riveting conversation with Christopher Salkowitz from RST Automation, we uncover how outdated sterile processing methods are creating a perfect storm that's forcing rural hospitals to close and burning out the dedicated techs who keep surgeries running.
Drawing on groundbreaking research by Dr. Peter Nichol, Chris reveals the shocking statistic that each operating room loses $200,000 annually solely from incorrect or incomplete surgical trays. Even more alarming, fewer than 20% of sterile processing quality issues are ever reported. The financial drain is massive, but the human cost is equally devastating as SPD teams work harder than necessary with inadequate tools.
Chris paints a vivid analogy: imagine supermarkets without scanners, where cashiers memorize prices and process everything manually. The chaos would be unmanageable, yet this precisely describes how most SPD departments function without proper automation. The AI-powered systems from RSC don't replace techs but amplify their effectiveness by handling instrument identification in seconds, allowing staff to focus on critical inspection tasks.
What makes this conversation particularly urgent is the demographic reality facing healthcare. As baby boomers transition to Medicare Plus with its lower reimbursements, hospitals that don't embrace efficiency will simply not survive. The disconnect between OR leaders, SPD managers, and hospital executives has allowed this problem to persist far too long, with each department experiencing the pain in isolation.
The vision for sterile processing in 2030 is "streamlined" – organized, efficient, with higher wages justified by doubled productivity. For technicians, managers, and executives alike, this episode is a call to action. The cost of inaction is simply too high. The future of healthcare depends on evolving now, before more hospital doors close permanently.
Connect with Christopher Salkowitz on LinkedIn to request demos and learn how automation can transform your department. Share this episode to spread this urgent message throughout healthcare.
Welcome to the Sterilization Station, the show where we elevate the voices reshaping the future of sterile processing. I'm your host, Bill Rochelle, and today's conversation is going to shake up what you think you know about automation in sterile processing. Our guest is Chris Sokowicz, a leading voice in surgical workflow innovation and someone who's not afraid to call out the apathy and the inertia that's costing hospitals millions and also burning out our techs. At the same time, From doubling efficiency and using AI as a digital preceptor, is leading the charge and disrupting outdated systems. So if you're a tech or a manager or an executive, this conversation is your wake-up call, so let's get into it. So we definitely want to welcome Chris onto the show today and we're really glad to have you here at the Serialization Station.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir. It's really an honor to be here, Bill. Seriously, I appreciate it, and you're bringing a lot of great things into light, so it's an honor and privilege to be here.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you for coming and really, really excited about this conversation, and so just looking into diving in some of the questions we have here today to just articulate a great conversation. And so, chris, if you could, what are you thinking through right now and what's keeping you up at night when it comes to sterile processing?
Speaker 2:Honestly, it's seeing the SPD techs that we know and love burning the candle at both ends and working harder than they need to, when I know that we have the technology to double their efficiency, eliminate staffing shortages and mitigate errors from burnout, from inexperience or from being constantly overwhelmed. Our systems have been available for the past six years. Imagine knowing the best, most dedicated people working behind the scenes to save lives, who are the lifeblood of the hospital. But in a situation that everyone can relate to, right A supermarket. Imagine the backups. What the backups would be like if there were no scanners in a supermarket to manage inventory, to identify items, to check people out. And you've got new staff having to memorize everything at the cost of a lot of money if they misidentify items.
Speaker 2:But in spite of the constant anarchy, these cashiers show up to work every day burning out, and I'm the director of sales for a company that makes scanners. They don't need barcodes or RFID, but use AI to identify the items. But supermarkets or hospitals, in this scenario, refuse to put, refuse to or put off investing in these items and the scanners, excuse me. That would eliminate these costly errors and pay for themselves in under a year and permanently put out this fire, metaphorically speaking, stopping the $50 billion hemorrhaging from SPDs annually forever. Hospitals are shutting down Bill because the current model is unsustainable, so I'm excited to be able to enact real change and reset the standard in a viable model where everybody wins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's great, that's really awesome. I had a chance to go to your website and look at your products. I remember just calling the whole shift around like everyone. I said everyone, come here, come here, check this out. The whole team was just so. They're like Bill, we didn't even know this existed. I was like I know, I just heard about it, and so they were super excited. They were asking me a bunch of questions and how would this work? And so just to know that there's a technology out here that is able to add value to the processes that exist and I think that's what RST automation is doing is they're just trying to add value to, like you mentioned, just really valuing the SPD people at heart.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you mentioned, the shoulders are carrying the entire weight of the world in their shoulders and they have so much responsibility and we have these tools that you know make it easier. I mean, nobody can be perfect forever and nobody can operate at the optimal capacity always. And you know, with the assistance of technology, you know, moving at a normal, comfortable pace could be the optimal pace. Nothing wrong with that right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no, it's so true. I know we mentioned that apathy is a major challenge. How does that show up when you're talking to hospital executives or SPD leaders? And then what does it look like in real time?
Speaker 2:I can't say it shows up when I'm speaking to SPD leaders and hospital executives.
Speaker 2:Initially, you know they all seem to be genuinely interested in the benefits of our automated systems and you know, without mentioning any names, there are very big sterile processing companies that are taking advantage of this opportunity in which hospitals aren't moving to increase their bottom lines.
Speaker 2:Honestly, when it comes to talking to hospital executives or SPD leaders, we always have their support when we're going through the process, you know, when people see the technology actually working and functioning as it does and they see exactly how it identifies the instruments, one at a time, and how all the convoluted and egregious processes are simplified and made easy, everybody can understand how it works and what's best for the system, but at the end of the day there's always somebody that just doesn't care enough to bring it into fruition.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. I mean, I don't know if something else comes up, something else that's more important, but now that we've got additional dynamics to this, the additional layer with quantifying the qualitative benefits of it, it's really brought it to another level, which we're going to get into shortly. But it's this unsustainable model that we're currently living in. It can't live any longer. So this is something we have to bring attention to and get to now, because more hospitals are going to go under and we're not going to have a conversation to have if we continue in the same line of sight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's really good. Why do you think this message isn't resonating yet at scale?
Speaker 2:To be completely blunt, that study was just completed and published at the end of February 2025 by Dr Peter Nichol and has since been my personal mission to tell anybody and everybody that will listen to me, because that gave our business model an entirely new dimension, quantifying the qualitative benefits of our A tray assembly system. That's what I was talking about before. This eliminates incorrect or incomplete surgical trays, delivering 100% of trays 100% of the time to the OR. Excuse me, $200,000 per OR per year is a figure he attributed that is lost strictly because of OR minutes spent fixing these incomplete or incorrect trays, and fewer than 20% of SPD-related quality issues are reported. So this preliminary study is just scoring the surface, but revealing these understated but staggering losses that can be mitigated right away and permanently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's really really good and I appreciate you for adding all that information. Even referring back to the study was really really good. What's the most frustrating roadblock you face when trying to implement these automation systems in sterile processing departments?
Speaker 2:Well, I've noticed that there's often uneven power dynamic between technicians and leadership because of staffing shortages and technicians knowing that they're needed and can't be replaced at a moment's notice. So if they decide that they don't feel like using these new systems, or management can effectively lead and make AIM systems the new standard operating procedure, it can lead to these solutions just collecting dust, because without people they don't work. We're working diligently with current clients and we have made changes to create super users and facilities and involve educators at the facility in using our equipment as a preceptor and nurturing the idea that simply using a tool to help identify instruments and let novice or advanced techs work at the same pace without losing accuracy or quality is a move that everyone should stand by.
Speaker 1:That's really good, I know you offer live demos and customized return on investment business cases. No cost data back, of course. What's the reaction when you show people how strong the numbers are?
Speaker 2:People are always impressed with the numbers, but we usually run into an indifferent person, whether it's on the perioperative side or the SPD leadership side.
Speaker 2:So I've changed our live demonstration to require that members of the leadership teams on both sides are present so they can see our automated systems operate with their own eyes together and understand and believe the strong numbers that are delivered in a business case and evade important benefits being lost in translation when being passed on to perioperative to sign off on the capital expenditures. So it's better that we're actually doing the demonstration and everybody's present and they can actually see the machine's doing what they say they're going to do, because the numbers are almost incredulous. They're difficult to believe because who could say that? Well it's. It's tough to believe that you could do double as much for half as much money in a year unless you see it actually done with your own eyes. It's very, very powerful when you make sure that everybody's present for that now and it's been much more effective for us kind of puts to life and brings to life the saying like seeing is believing.
Speaker 1:right, you see it and then you really really you don't need faith here.
Speaker 2:We just need you to actually see it, because you can see it and believe it. This is not some juju we're doing here. This is real technology at work.
Speaker 1:No, that's really really good. Now, of course, you know as much as I know especially if you're around sterile processing that you've heard in conversations that usually we're the last in line for capital investments, right? So why do you think that is, and how can we reframe the conversation to move this forward?
Speaker 2:No, you're 100% correct, bill. Sterile processing investments from what I hear all the time, is only done when absolutely necessary. So sterilizers are held together with duct tape and bubble gum, but once they crash and things start backing up, the check gets cut. I can't say how to do it on behalf of the entire sterile processing community, but I'm fortunate in that with my particular company we offer automated systems that pay for themselves, usually in less than a year, and then generate perpetuities from the labor savings. So if I eliminate $10 million a year in losses being currently sustained in a safe facility 10 FTEs per year it should be less difficult to make a case for investing in the SPD ahead of other projects, right? So this affects the OR and patient safety as well, so I'm hoping that we can make it a priority and bring more awareness to the topic. That's really good.
Speaker 1:Do you think some of the resistance comes from fear, maybe fear of change or of job displacement, or maybe just not understanding the tech, the technology that exists, and how do you respond to that at RSC Automation?
Speaker 2:Best answer to that is if somebody is adverse to changing growth, they're probably not the type of person or facility wants leading a department respectfully. But this technology is about the evolution of sterile processing. So we need people to realize that this technology fully realizes their potential to be the best technicians they can be. But, yes, people can be resistant to change, afraid of using technology and stuck in their ways. But that shouldn't stop growth. And I mean, as I had said and as the research suggests in Peter Nichols' studies, it's unsustainable in the current model that it is. So we have to adapt and grow and evolve or we're doomed to fail. So we have to stay afloat and we have to move forward.
Speaker 1:That's good, you know. We think about real world impact, right, like financial impact, operational impact and, of course, the human impact. Let's talk about the human side. How does automation support the techs, especially, say, the new hires or those overworked veterans in the department?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Well, there's things that people do well and there's things that machines do well. Our systems identify, process and mark an item off account sheet in two seconds, freeing up people to do what they do better, since they've got better vision and dexterity to inspect and test the instruments. So this cuts out all the pre-sorting and a handful of steps in the process and makes shortcuts impossible. Instruments must be inspected one at a time, but still a lot faster.
Speaker 2:Both technicians in the past tried to game the system and the way that we got our metrics is literally by spying on people. You know, just like looking into the, you know the cameras and watching how long it actually takes for somebody to assemble a set. You know seeing people try to game the system, you know. You know scanning out the tray before it's been completed and doing everything they can to game the system, picking up you know five looped instruments at the same time and kind of inspecting them, look at them back in front, okay, they're good and putting it through, but then you have a contaminated instrument that goes through. You know Perfect practice makes perfect.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there are amazing teams out there that train incredible people and at their best day. They can go side to side with our technology and they can keep up, but it's just who is racing all the time to be at that pace always, as who is racing all the time to be at that pace always. As I said earlier, we want to set the standard pace to be the optimal pace. So if we have the machines doing these things that they do better and people doing what they do better, together we get everything done much quicker, much more accurately and efficiently. So it leaves room for all those extra problems that we're talking about and a higher income that techs would like to see and a lot of other things that can come as positive conclusions from. You know the whole solution.
Speaker 1:I think that's really great. Makes me think about, like you know, in this whole age of AI. It's like can people in AI live together? Right, you're saying like, yes, we can live together because the machines have their part, the technology has their part, but we need people to work with it and to support it, but also to do the part that maybe the technology is not able to do.
Speaker 2:This is not that AI. We do not function without people. So I mean, if people decide not to use it, our machines just sit in a corner and collect dust, so nobody's jobs are going to replace If they don't use it, it's useless.
Speaker 1:Right. So it's a tool that's there to assist us, but we have to grab it, we have to use it, we have to turn it.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Now can you walk us through what a day looks like with your technology versus without your system?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, without our systems, you've got overworked, understaffed SPDs trying to do the best they can. You've got analytics about production and people that can game the system and falsify the results, as we spoke about earlier. You've got different sized peel packs and usually a waste bucket full of material that was miscut or measured improperly. And you've got lost instruments, misplaced or mislabeled. Well, our systems, everything is streamlined, errors are eliminated, production times are at least halved that's the most conservative estimate, but it's more like 60, 70%, 80% and people can spend the necessary times inspecting and testing instruments. So bioburden isn't found in the OR, infection risks are mitigated and more capital is freed up to justify paying these SPD techs a higher wage when you can do twice as much in half the time. That's good.
Speaker 1:That's really good. So what role do you see AI playing in building stronger, more resilient SPD teams in the future?
Speaker 2:Well. Having AI as a resource to identify instruments, for newer techs especially, and the training mode in the trade assembly system allows techs to both work at an efficient pace while learning a simulation at the same time, or if a new tech is tasked with peel packing, the system automatically identifies the instruments and produces a perfectly sized peel pack and label so they can learn without wasting additional time nor choosing the wrong size, material or measuring incorrectly. This would allow SPD teams to focus on more critical responsibilities of inspecting and testing instruments, as we discussed, or spending excess time assembling trays that are incompatible with AIM systems. But more than anything, like I said, with the training mode, they have the ability to choose one out of four instruments to choose which is the best one, and all of the analytics are state-of-the-art. You never had a per-instrument, per-technician with with the time basis for anything before like this, so we have very granular data. That's fantastic. It's really the only way to keep track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's actually really really good. I hear the different orthopedic companies have robots that are really streamlining the time it takes to make the precision cuts for total knee replacement, hips and stuff like that. So definitely technologies can be more precise, so I think that's really good. I really appreciate how you went into that to explain how precise the cuts are, how it's not wasting material, able to utilize AI and assisting to identify the instrument, and so yeah, that's really really good.
Speaker 2:You just see the difference, you know, because a different technician might take a different size material or whatever like that to cut a certain instrument, you know, and just the entire peel packaging area and the instrument area looks a lot more neat and a lot more consistent. And it's night and day when you see one from the other because you know when there's more than one person doing the peel packaging it's usually always different. So this is just consistency and material savings and it's just right every single time and it's not so much of an arduous, awful process. I mean, nobody wants to draw the short straw and get stuck with peel packing all day, but with this it's kind of fun. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:No, it's good. I think it's really cool. Yeah, I think it's good. I think it's really cool. Yeah, I think it's very cool. What's the opportunity cost of continuing to operate inefficiently?
Speaker 2:Well, we discussed some of the figures earlier, but according to the study it ranges from about $6 to cases we'll gladly prepare for anybody with simply the quantity of fuel packs made daily, weekly, monthly, whichever is most accurate, quantity of trays assembled and the average technician pay rate, loaded or unloaded. With those simple metrics we can show them exactly what the new labor savings would be, how many FTEs per year they'll save, and we're eradicating these millions of dollars of losses due to incorrect or incomplete trays.
Speaker 1:That's really good and interesting at the same time. What are hospitals actually losing right now? By not implementing these tools.
Speaker 2:As we said earlier, $200,000 per OR per year is being lost directly because of instruments. That was a conversation I had directly with Dr Peter Nickel. He said that's the most accurate representation. That is just due to instrumentation, not due to scheduling, which is another thing he mentions inside of his study. This is just to incorrect or incomplete trays arriving to the OR. Then there's other studies and I have other consultants that did studies in regard to the infection risk opening up the OR, which is a sterile environment, to go retrieve these instruments, which invites infection. That shouldn't have to happen. We're also talking about patient safety when it comes to this, not just money.
Speaker 1:Know you've spoken at you. Know you've been to ARN, hspa, ormc. What's the disconnect between OR leaders, spd leaders and execs? Why aren't they having the same conversation?
Speaker 2:What I observed. The people at those conferences are all different and although they all know about and feel the impact from the issues our systems resolve, they seem to be all unique entities and compartmentalized within the hospital. So, aside to capital expenditure requests being sent up to perioperative leadership when purchases need to be made, there aren't or so it seems inter-departmental meetings to discuss these adverse effects being felt from shortcomings of other areas of the hospital, from what I gathered from the people I met along my journey anyway. So it's as though everybody's experiencing all this pain independently but nobody's getting together to have the conversation together.
Speaker 2:So these studies that Dr Nickel did were my first dabble into this pool that I didn't know existed and the first time I'm experiencing pain. This to the eyes of somebody that's seeing things from every perspective, you know, because he's done the work. He's spoken to the different departments and gotten conclusions from seven different hospitals, you know. So this is the first time that's happened. I just think that hospitals aren't having these conversations and without this study having taken place, it might've gone lost for a much longer time. Like I said, it's $50 billion with a B being lost through sterile processing departments on an annual basis for something that we have a solution for. So it's a really big issue to bring to light, sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. That's very good. So 20% of complaints about trays are never reported. That's massive right. Why is that being swept under the rug and who needs to own this fix?
Speaker 2:Well, fewer than 20% of the SPD-related quality issues are reported because it consumes additional costs of the OR minutes reporting it, so it's 80% or more of the time the OR staff chooses not to spend additional time to bring attention to it, so they can get back to the task at hand. I believe that hospitals need to have interdepartmental meetings to address these issues and explore solutions that will make them more efficient and profitable. But our tech is a solution to a few very significant issues, but certainly not all of them. But we could certainly eradicate at least 60% of this hemorrhaging if we had our systems in place to assist in the human element.
Speaker 1:Good, now that we've both mentioned Dr Peter Nichols' study, what were the key takeaways that you got from that study and why should every hospital board be reading it now?
Speaker 2:Well, dr Nichols took the time to observe and report the amount of time being consumed reworking errant trays due to missing or incorrect instruments and combined that with the actual hospital's overhead costs during surgeries when interrupted.
Speaker 2:He then correlated that with the other financial metrics and explained how these shortfalls fit into the current business model of hospitals.
Speaker 2:Alongside the demographic of patients that are beginning to and will soon flood the OR, he states and I'm paraphrasing baby boomers are the largest population and not in great health and will want orthopedic heart and cancer procedures after switching to Medicare Plus with very low reimbursements.
Speaker 2:When you do the math, hospitals that don't find ways to be more efficient will not survive. $50 billion, like I said before, is being lost from sterile processing departments, and he's making a call to action to start the conversations we are having right now to bring awareness to the issue on social media platforms like this, highlighting the billions of dollars hospitals are leaving on the table. As we watch his predictions realizing, rural hospitals are already closing in areas with large populations of baby boomers and less privately insured people to subsidize low payouts of Medicare Plus. I saw it on the news just the other day it was a hospital in a rural area that closed down and people have to travel 45 minutes now to get to another hospital that's close by and for those same exact reasons. This failure to adapt and evolve and finding ways to operate more efficiently which we offer and is available, is causing this to happen. It's happening now. This is again a call to action, bill.
Speaker 1:Very good call to action If you had five minutes. We're walking into a board meeting of directors and they turn and they say, bill, who's this? And I say this is Chris Sokolowitz and he's from RSC Automation. And you had the chance to give one slide pitch. What would you say?
Speaker 2:Well, we've been speaking for more than five minutes so I don't want to be completely duplicitous, but I'd certainly draw their attention to the massive hemorrhaging they're suffering due to these issues that have solutions. I mean, if they didn't care about the SPD techs or our staff, patients and everybody in between that benefit from the streamlining and accuracy of these systems. I certainly just conclude with asking if the board favored or opposed losing $10 million a year because of these preventable issues, would anybody say if they had a choice between investing $4K or losing $10 million, they'd choose losing 10 million bucks? I mean, I'm never speaking to the board when I ask, but it's shocking that it isn't everyone every time immediately and without question yeah, for sure, for sure, I know I would say I mean, if it was my money, but if nothing mattered in the entire world, like just you, like money, right, let's just do the right thing here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's good. Everyone you like money, right, let's just do the right thing here. Yeah, no, I think that's good.
Speaker 2:Everyone likes it, all the most altruist reasons in the entire world. But it's okay. If you just like money, that's fine. Still, everybody wins. But you know you can leave it to the good altruist reasons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good. What's the biggest myth about SPD automation?
Speaker 2:People think it's going to take their jobs instead of actually making them more valuable. Okay, so then true or false?
Speaker 1:AI is replacing SPD techs, that's.
Speaker 2:False. Yeah, I'm glad you can laugh. I'm glad we can laugh. But an interesting addition to it there was a negative correlation in Dr Nichols' study when it came to hiring more techs to eliminate trade errors. It was only positive for washing and sterilization. So you can hire a whole bunch of more people to try to make the process better, but without the actual tools to mitigate the losses and to correct where humans err, it doesn't make it any better. You're just wasting more money. So this tech is really the solution to fixing this.
Speaker 1:That's great, very great. What's one word to describe the future of sterile processing in 2030? Streamline Got it. One thing you change about how SPDs are perceived in hospitals.
Speaker 2:You know what Any machine. All the parts serve a function are very important. There shouldn't be a hierarchy. Just because of the engine block costs more than the oil does. Spds are an essential part of hospitals, crucial to the OR OR turnover, and have potential to play an even more important role if facilities begin to communicate, optimize trays, utilize automation and conclusively perform more procedures in a day because of it, while no longer losing that $50 billion per year. Good stuff.
Speaker 1:Let's end with this. Let's end with this. What would SPD look like if everyone pulled the trigger on automation today?
Speaker 2:It'd be very organized, less madness, less staffing issues, less pressure and there'd be room and a good case to be made to increase wages for SPD staff when they can double their throughput while increasing its quality. I mean it seems like a win-win, win-win, win-win, win-win, win-win A win-win right all the way across the screen.
Speaker 1:What's the vision you're working on today, like toward today Vision.
Speaker 2:I'm working with today Toward. Today, my vision is just to have people start to understand what I'm laying down here, because I'm just trying to help. Granted, I'm a director of sales. It's my job to sell things, but I'm not trying to sell some mythical idea or ideology. That's like you know something that's off base. I'm trying to sell people on.
Speaker 2:You know you need to move in this direction and evolve or you're going to lapse. You'll cease to exist. The model's unsustainable. I agree with Dr Nickel. I mean, the numbers don't add up. So if people aren't willing to invest in what's going to fix and stop the hemorrhaging and help them to grow, then they're not going to continue. And RST, we're starting to gain some momentum, thankfully. But I mean what a shame it would be if we had the solution for the past 11 years now I guess six years, I could say after beta testing, and it wasn't capitalized upon and so many hospitals continued to crash and burn while it was never necessary to. So it's like I'm just reaching out to you guys and grasping at every straw that I can so I can reach as many people as I can and we can get this message across that we could do this together. Let's just go.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. That's great, very good. Thank you for answering that question. What can listeners do after this episode, whether they're a tech, a manager, a hospital executive, to push this conversation?
Speaker 2:forward. That's a great question, Bill, and it's just actually having the conversation and acknowledging that this is a reality that must be faced and dealt with before the cost of ignoring it closes the doors. As I said, it's unsustainable and will continue to worsen. I pray that this gets reposted by everyone on my network and my phone doesn't stop ringing.
Speaker 2:Yes, I like being successful, but I like helping good people, saving hospitals and raising the bar for well-being of everyone. That's the mission and the reward that I seek when coming to work every day. Everyone. That's the mission and the reward that I seek when coming to work every day. So I'm hoping that this increases the quality of life of everyone and lessens infection risks and helps hospitals operate more profitably and the executives and the patients and the SBD techs and everybody can be happy and better and more well off and there's more money in the system for the things that they need. We're hoping for a full service solution, so we're just trying to do our little parts. I just pray that everybody's motivated to get this to the powers that be and the powers that be say you know what we need to take this into consideration now, because the cost of not acting is too expensive. So I'm here and I'm at your disposal.
Speaker 1:That's really good Quick question. So currently you have two products right One is for assembling trays and one is for pill packing. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:We have a storage system also, which is a reincarnation with the same technology, but it just uses the vision board to take inventory of the items. So you can scan an item into inventory and knows the location. And our systems all communicate amongst each other as well, so if you needed to locate something or a tray was incomplete, it could say you know it's located at this location as well. So all three of them work together storage, tray assembly and go back awesome, that's great.
Speaker 1:And then how can people reach you? Say somebody is like Eureka, I found it. They want to tell their manager they want to reach out to you. How can they reach you directly?
Speaker 2:We could post my information on this podcast and in the comments, if you'd like, or wherever you do so, but we're at wwwrstautomationcom. I'm Christopher Salkowitz on LinkedIn dot com. I'm Christopher Salkowitz on LinkedIn. Find me, I'm the biggest advocate and I will answer every question, every message that I receive. I'm very dedicated to my mission.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you Well, chris. Thank you for not just talking tech but showing us what's possible when we stop accepting the status quo. So, if you're listening and you're a tech, ask your leadership how automation could change your department. If you're a manager or you're an exec, go look at your trade data, your staffing burnout, your surgical delays. The inefficiencies are costing you more than you think. And if you want support, chris many times today is offering demos, business cases, real results. Don't let yourself get stuck. You know, hit that, follow, share this episode and keep the conversations going. And until next time, as I always say, stay sharp, stay sterile, stay curious and remember to stay committed to doing better. Once again, chris, we appreciate you for coming on the podcast and you're always, always welcome to come back to Sterilization Station.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, Bill. I appreciate you having me buddy Until next time. Until next time, Till next time.
