Flower Orthopedics Launches O.R.-Ready Implant and Instrument System

Flower Orthopedics, of Horsham, Pa., recently launched its FlowerCube, a standardized, single-use bone fixation concept that the company claims provides “significant operation and operational efficiencies.” According to the company, each cube is indication-tailored and contains all of the necessary implants, trials and instruments needed to perform a procedure in what the comapny markets as a Ready-for-Surgery FlowerCube.

Flower Orthopedics’ “Ready-for-Surgery” concept provides surgery-specific applications in individual sterile packaging, which eliminates the need for pre-operation sterilization and, compared to current practices, considerably reduces the number of implants and instruments brought into the operating room (OR). All instruments in the FlowerCube are single-use and disposable, removing the need to reprocess surgical tools post-op. The disposable feature is designed to help minimize the risk of infection potentially associated with reusable devices and expedite valuable OR turnaround time, according to the company.

With these efficiencies, the company believes hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) could save as much as 30 percent of the combined implant and instrument costs currently spent on each surgical case.

“The number of items brought into the procedure room for each orthopedic case today is unnecessarily excessive. It’s confusing, time-consuming and inefficient. If providers are going to compete in this environment of declining reimbursements, they need better solutions,” said Oliver Burckhardt, president and CEO of Flower Orthopedics. “We developed our FlowerCubes to simplify the process of preparing for and conducting bone fixation surgery while ensuring clinical excellence. What you get is consistent, reliable quality with faster patient turnaround time likely.”

Through an exclusive distribution agreement with McKesson Medical-Surgical, a healthcare services and information technology company with extensive reach into the ASC market, Flower Orthopedics will immediately begin the rollout of its hand and wrist cubes. The company’s foot cubes will be launched over the course of the fourth quarter this year.

Flower Orthopedics’ strategic goal is to have FlowerCubes available, able to address all commonly occurring fractures, in 2014.

“At McKesson Medical-Surgical, we strive to deliver better business health for our customers and to help our customers deliver better patient care. We are pleased to be able to offer Flower Orthopedics’ products to our surgery center customers. We are glad to offer products to our customers that help them deliver better care for their patients,” said Joan Eliasek, senior vice president, Product Strategy & Supplier Relations, McKesson Medical-Surgical.

Designed with simplicity in mind, the FlowerCube concept not only helps take the guesswork out of implant and instrument selection during a case, it allows providers the ability to customize their cube content based on personal preferences. Surgeons can dictate preferences using Flower Orthopedics’ mobile tablet app that has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop feature, thereby streamlining the ordering/replenishment process and minimizing inventory levels.

The FlowerCube implants feature the patented Flower Locking System, which allows for accurate anatomic placement and reliable locking. The offering is sold in a “rep-less” model, company officials noted, to eliminate the need to have an implant representative in the room during surgery.

Flower Orthopedics offers bone-fixation implants. More than 200 plate options are manufactured in partnership with ZRINSKI AG, a Germany-based supplier of implants, medical products and technical solutions.

“We’re thrilled to be working directly with McKesson Medical-Surgical in this launch. Their wide-ranging relationships with ASCs will help facilitate an important change in how orthopedic surgery is delivered,” added Burckhardt. “Providing surgeons with only the tools they need in a more efficient way, without compromising patient care, is the right type of change we need for the future of orthopedics.”

McKesson Medical-Surgical, with offices in Richmond, Va., and McKesson Medical-Surgical Minnesota Supply Inc. in Golden Valley, Minn., are affiliates of the McKesson Corporation, a healthcare services and information technology company that is currently ranked 14th on the Fortune 500