Are your surgical instruments and endoscopes under tight lock and key? The recent case of a Florida surgical resident accused of stealing equipment from a hospital storage area is not an isolated incident, investigators say, but part of a larger trend of instruments being stolen from healthcare facilities, often for resale on the black market.

As the price tags for high-tech endoscopes and complex instruments used in orthopedic and other procedures continue to climb, so does their value on the international black market, reports the Montreal Gazette, quoting several law enforcement officials familiar with the problem.

Two Montreal hospitals have had surgical instrument sets worth tens of thousands of dollars stolen from them since last November. In the United States, hospitals have reported equipment stolen by employees or people posing as sales reps, former Chicago Veterans Administration Police detective Patrick Kerrigan tells the Gazette.

Endoscopes are a frequent target for thieves "since they're flexible, expensive, resilient and relatively small," reports EndoNurse.com in a recent roundup of endoscope theft cases. Just last month, Boston Scientific warned customers that a shipment of unsterilized endoscopic, urology and GYN instruments had been stolen.

While these instruments cost tens of thousands of dollars new, they sell for much less on the black market in Eastern Europe, Africa and Central and South America, experts say. Some stolen surgical equipment may also end up on legitimate resale sites, like eBay and DOTmed.com, warns Mr. Kerrigan. "There are a lot of used medical equipment dealers out there, and some stolen stuff pops up."

To prevent theft in your facility, Mr. Kerrigan recommends that you educate security guards about the threat, use computerized inventory systems to track equipment closely and prohibit outside repair personnel from entering your facility after certain hours.

The McGill University Health Centre, which oversees the 2 Montreal hospitals that were targeted by thieves in recent months, says it has installed security cameras in instrument storage areas and no new thefts have been reported since.

Irene Tsikitas