Thieves Among Us

FBI officials report billions of dollars of medical equipment have been stolen.⁴ Are your endoscopes protected from this alarming new trend of corporate theft?

In Florida alone, more than 48 hospitals have reported significant medical equipment theft, with portable devices disappearing the fastest. Endoscopy suites are the ideal environment for opportunistic thieves. These criminals have reportedly disguised themselves as company representatives and priests to win over the trust of healthcare workers (HCWs). Before the endoscopy team members realize their character judgment error, their endoscopes are headed to foreign countries for cheap resale and fast profit for thieves.^{1, 2}

Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, Fla, had 12 endoscopes stolen from its facility in 1998. Valued at more than $300,000, FBI officials think the scopes were probably resold abroad for a quick profit.¹

Law enforcement officials theorize thieves target endoscopes, defibrulators, and other hand-held devices because they are often intricate, expensive, and lightweight.

More than $160,000 worth of endoscopic equipment was stolen from a University of California at San Diego Medical Center supply room in 1998. Ten endoscopes were stolen; law enforcement suspected the equipment was headed to Mexico to be resold at a reduced rate.³

Officials from Lawnwood Medical Center and UCSD did not return calls for an interview.

However, thieves do not have to travel to sell equipment abroad. With the technology of Internet auction houses at the fingertips of any computer user, medical equipment can be bought, sold, and shipped intrastate, interstate, or internationally instantaneously. While auction web sites denounce stolen equipment and threaten sellers against selling stolen goods, there are few methods of checking the validity of ownership.

Bill Rogers, owner of E Auction Brokers, sells goods online, but refuses to sell items if the ownership seems shady. Rogers works out of a small office in Oregon, where he predominantly helps elders in his community who are leery of working the computer. He sells their items on www.ebay.com.

"The majority of the people I deal with are older folks are not computer literate. They have stuff that is worth money that they don't want to sell cheap in a garage sale or for one-tenth of what it is really worth. They'll bring it to me and I'll be able to sell it for close to what it is actually worth," he said.

These items have included medical equipment. He said out of 500-600 sales he's helped broker, he's only turned away two people who he thought may be selling stolen goods.

Smith Patterson, Internet operations director of www.cyber-medical-supply.com said the burden of ownership falls upon the sellers within their auction site.

"In any of the auction areas, it is up to the seller to show that what they are selling is legal. We don't have anything to do with that. If we find out the product is illegal, we take the seller off the site," he said.

At any given time, endoscopes are for sale on Internet auction sites. A sampling of medical items listed on www.ebay.com at time of press include: antique medical books, crutches, blood pressure monitors, Liston bone cutters, Magill catheter forceps, circumcision clamp, bone/amputation saw, Berliner reflex hammer, and a 20-piece stainless steel medical equipment kit.

Frank Malvasio, president of Scope-Loc, invented a method of securing flexible endoscopes after noticing the need while working for Medical Optics--an endoscopic repair company. Malvasio said hospital administrators from different areas of the world were frequently calling the Medical Optics office to report stolen endoscopes. Malvasio recorded the serial numbers of the stolen scopes in case they were brought in for repairs.

"We've heard more and more theft of endoscopes, especially flexible endoscopes. They are very light, very easy to carry, and very easy to steal. There isn't good security in most hospitals," he said. "I've heard of a story in Texas where someone actually got a job as a night janitor after falsifying his records. On the first night on the job, using a push laundry cart, he took 20-25 scopes--all the scopes they had in the endoscopy unit--put them in the cart, wheeled them out to his car, put them in his trunk, drove off, and was never seen again."

However, Malvasio says new security measures can prevent this sort of theft from occurring in the future.

"I invented a lock that is unique. It actually fits right onto the insertion tube. You cannot remove the lock without a key. It puts pressure on the tube where you can't slide it off and you can't hit it off with a hammer. It is case-hardened steel," he said. "So you can't remove the lock without a key. If you do try to, you'll damage the insertion tube, which then renders the scope useless. A thief doesn't want to damage the insertion tube. To put a hole in the insertion tube, or to cut the insertion tube, or to cut any of the components inside the insertion tube, renders it worthless."

The lock, which costs $200, is scheduled to be on the market in mid-2002.

For a complete list of references, log onto: www.endonurse.com

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