In every medical facility today, you see a whole host of medical catheters, syringes and needles. These supplies are widely used and have a variety of applications. They're used in basic everyday outpatient procedures as well as invasive surgical procedures that are performed much less often.

Stocking your medical office, nursing home, hospital or outpatient clinic with catheters, syringes and needles is part of doing business. Many practitioners choose to buy cheap syringes and needles that are disposable so that they don't have to worry about disinfection procedures. No matter your specialty, you'll be able to find every one of these products to satisfy your needs.

1. Make a list of catheters you use in your facility to make sure you get everything necessary to operate when at full capacity.

2. Stock up on any disposable syringes used to push meds and withdraw blood from your patients.

3. Buy disposable needles to prevent cross-contamination, as well as a container to dispose of them in the proper fashion.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Obtain all the necessary medical catheters used in your facility

Catheters have a very wide range of uses. They are not just used in incontinent patients, but are used in a variety of medical procedures as well, including unclogging blocked arteries, maneuvering a tiny camera into the heart or administering a spinal nerve block to mothers going into active labor.

I recommend: View a large selection of intermittent catheters at 180 Medical. Balt Extrusion offers a range of catheters for angioplasty and intracranial procedures.

Get medical syringes for a wide range of medical procedures

Disposable syringes are required in many areas to prevent disease transmission. Syringes are used for both injecting and withdrawing. From giving medications to taking blood samples, you'll need to stock a variety of syringes for everyday use.

I recommend: Buy syringes prefilled with medication from Emergency Medical Products as this can save you some trouble in a situation where time is of the essence; these syringes are used widely in emergency rooms and by medics in ambulances. Discard all used syringes and needles in a biohazard sharps container from the Medical Supply Group.

Select different sizes of medical needles to accommodate any patient with any need

Different needles are used for different things. From small gauge butterfly needles and hypodermic needles to larger needles used for biopsies and aspirations, you'll need a rather large supply of needles to select from, depending on what type of facility you run.

I recommend: Choose from a variety of gauges and lengths of hypodermic needles from Atlantic Medical Supply. Find catheter introduction needles at Epimed International.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you run a fertility or gynecology practice, you'll most likely need hysterosalpingogram catheters to perform HSGs. These catheters are used to push radioactive dye through the fallopian tubes to check for blockages.