North Haven Rotary Gets Virtual Tour of the Operating Room

In lieu of a scheduled speaker unable to attend a North Haven Rotary meeting recently, President Michael Hallahan called upon fellow Rotarian Jonathan Martinek to describe some of his career experiences behind the scenes in the hospital operating room.

As a member of the medical device industry for over 20 years, Martinek has most recently been on call as an independent medical contractor in sales and service for local hospitals. He began by stating, “In the current economic environment, it is not practical for hospitals to carry inventory of every possible implant or device that they might need for a given surgery,” adding that this is particularly true in his area of specialty, orthopedic joint replacements and trauma. 

Furthermore, Martinek stated, “The complexity of the necessary products and their wide range of sizes mean that a surgeon may not know what specific implant is needed until after a patient is on the operating table and certain critical measurements are taken inside the body. These factors combine to necessitate representatives of the manufacturers to be on call to deliver products and provide technical support at a moment’s notice.” He then described himself jokingly saying, “I’m the doctor’s Snap-on Tool guy.” 

Martinek noted that when a patient breaks a bone, the technician is contacted by medical authorities and must bring an assortment of “hundreds of different sizes of plates, screws and other products” into the hospital. With surgery underway, the doctor takes the appropriate measurements and specifies which items are necessary; and the hospital is billed only for those utilized. In closing, he indicated that the unused items are returned to the manufacturer or to the distributor’s warehouse, adding that beside the on-call delivery service, technical support for the associated instruments and equipment is often provided.