Healthmark Industries has a history of delivering innovative solutions for infection control to healthcare facilities
Even with the challenges that have been met due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Healthmark Industries has remained successful providing infection control solutions to healthcare facilities. Recently celebrating 50 years of business in 2019, Healthmark has experienced a great deal of growth with a variety of products and services. Known for providing innovative solutions for infection control to healthcare facilities, they are currently expanding their product line. The company has around 300 employees and has moved to their headquarters that is an overall size of around 100,000 square feet in Fraser, Mich.
Healthmark Industries was established in 1969 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan by Ralph A. Basile and his wife Suzanne. After a successful career in medical sales, Ralph decided to start his own company. In the early days, Healthmark was operated out of the family home, for their first generation products. From the beginning, Healthmark operated as a family business. Sons Ralph, Mark, and Steve were among Healthmark’s first “employees,” stamping literature with the company information on a pay-for-piece basis. As time went on, each of the sons, at different times and with different prior experiences, joined the family business and helped it grow. Healthmark’s founder and patriarch, Ralph A. Basile, passed away in 2001 after a battle with cancer. Through the efforts of his wife, three sons, grandchildren, and many loyal employees, the company has continued to grow.
An expanded product line
Over the years Healthmark has expanded their product line to fit the needs of healthcare facilities and one of the product lines that they added to is optical products. One of the newest products that just launched is the Flexible Inspection Scopes. It features a distal tip composed of a light source and camera lens at the end of a 110cm, flexible shaft. Designed for lumens 1.18 mm in diameter or larger or 2.0mm or larger. The camera and light are powered
by the USB connection on a PC. Compatible with computers running Windows PC’s, the included software allows viewing and recording.
Cleaning verification continues to be an important issue in healthcare across the country. News headlines often report about complications from surgeries caused by instruments and equipment that have not been properly cleaned. It has affected the healthcare field in recent years.
Healthmark added products to its ProFormanceTM monitoring tools over the years to help ensure surgical instruments and other equipment are reprocessed correctly. AAMI1 and AORN2 recommend at least weekly testing of the cleaning process. These products are designed to help facilities comply with standards and ensure they are reprocessing equipment and cleaning surgical instruments properly.
“One of the ongoing challenges in the healthcare industry is to effectively reprocess surgical instruments on a consistent basis,” says Ralph Basile, Vice President. Healthmark has products designed to help hospitals and healthcare facilities provide safe environments and prevent infections.
Researchers have discovered that devices that haven’t been reprocessed correctly can emerge from the cleaning process with bits of bone, blood and tissue from the previous operation. These contaminants can be reservoirs for some potentially lethal bacteria. Proper cleaning and sterilization are essential for ensuring that medical and surgical instruments do not transmit infectious pathogens to patients.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), multiple studies in many countries have documented lack of compliance with established guidelines for disinfection and sterilization. Failure to comply with scientifically based guidelines has led to numerous outbreaks.
“Our ProFormanceTM products are designed to help hospitals and healthcare facilities meet the challenge to regularly test their cleaning process in order to ensure their medical devices are being reprocessed properly. Once reprocessed, inspection will need to take place to ensure the surgical instructions are indeed clean,” Basile explained.
Healthmark also launched a new software application on the website, ProFormanceQA.com. This is a cloud-based database that Healthmark offers for free for their ProFormanceTM product customers. It’s a secure online database that allows you to record key statistics for the performance of your decontamination procedures, including the test results from Healthmark’s ProFormanceTM line of monitoring products. With this cloud-based database you can record data, use the information to generate impactful reports and track the performance of your cleaning equipment over time.
To begin the setup process go to www.proformanceqa.com. Then, please call 800-521-6224 ext. 6657 or email proformanceqa@hmark.com to schedule a call with the ProFormanceQA Help Desk.
If you are looking for industry news, helpful hints and other information, Healthmark produces a weekly newsletter that is distributed to thousands of readers. Each Healthmarket Digest features a story written by a member of the Healthmark team as well as a weekly coupon.
For more information about Healthmark Industries, visit www.hmark.com or call 800-521-6224.
1 AAMI (ST79 Comprehensive Guide to Steam Sterilization and Sterility Assurance in Health Care Facilities) 2 AORN Recommended Practices for Cleaning and Care of Surgical Instruments and Powered Equipmen