Heard on the news today that a clinic in NV was reusing syringes and as a result several patients had gotten Hep C. I can't believe that there are still places in the good ole U S of A that this could happen. I'm shocked

Well, I've worked at a few surgery centers, which were physician owned and you'd be surprized what is re-used not to mention what you'd be surprized that's for single use only, that OR's across the country reprocess and reuse.

I worked with an ED doc who didn't trust his intubation skills and insisted on having an LMA whenever he worked. We had to get it from the OR because we didn't have one, and they're resterilized. He opened it once, thinking he would need it, but easily intubated the patient. Then he put it in his pocket, sans wrapping. I said to him, Doctor, let me see the LMA a minute. He handed it to me (it never touched the patient btw), and then I said, "This has to go to central to be sterilized. Sorry." He got pretty mad, but I told him "We can always call down the nursing supervisor (I was charge nurse) and see what she thinks." He backed down.

I have some glass syringes and steel needles from back before disposables were made. They're pretty cool. One even came in its sterilization pouch :)