A procurement manager answers common STERIS medical device questions, including STERIS Franklin Park, endoscopy towers, pulse oximeters, and peritoneal dialysis machines.

What I'm not going to do here

I run procurement for a 340-bed hospital network. Since 2019, I've approved and tracked around $3.8 million per year in medical equipment and service contracts—closer to $3.6 million if I exclude small consumable POs. I'm not a STERIS salesperson. I've negotiated sterilizer purchases, endoscope reprocessing contracts, OR lights, tables, and service agreements. When someone asks about STERIS medical devices, the problem is often a search that is too broad. Here are the questions I'd answer for a colleague.

• What counts as STERIS medical devices?
• What is an endoscopy tower?
• Does STERIS make pulse oximeters or peritoneal dialysis machines?
• Why does STERIS Franklin Park show up in quotes?
• What should I compare before approving a STERIS quote?
• Do all OR and sterile processing products need to be one brand?
• What is the one budget question I'd ask before signing?

What counts as STERIS medical devices?

STERIS is not a one-stop shop for every hospital device. It is an infection prevention and surgical environment company. The product lines I see in STERIS medical device searches are sterilization systems, washer-disinfectors, automated endoscope reprocessors, surgical tables, surgical lights, warming cabinets, OR integration, cleaning consumables, and related service plans.

That list still covers a lot, but it has a pattern. Most STERIS products sit inside sterile processing or the surgical procedure room. When I compare quotes, I compare brands that support that integrated workflow. I do not compare STERIS against every company that sells something with a hospital logo.

What is an endoscopy tower?

An endoscopy tower is a mobile cart system that holds the electronics and procedure equipment used during endoscopy. A typical build includes a video processor or camera control unit, a light source, a high-definition monitor, an insufflator, an irrigation pump, and sometimes an electrosurgical generator or video capture unit.

It is not a single SKU, and it does not usually include the flexible endoscope itself. The endoscope connects to the tower. From a budget standpoint, that distinction matters. I have seen a purchase request for an endoscopy tower with no insufflator because the requester assumed everything was included. It wasn't. Another line item appeared before the system could be used.

If you're planning a new GI or urology suite, budget for scopes, reprocessing equipment, storage, and the tower as separate items. Then ask the vendor to list every component on the cart in the quote.

Does STERIS make pulse oximeters or peritoneal dialysis machines?

No, not in the STERIS medical device portfolio I've reviewed for purchasing. STERIS is not a patient-monitoring company or a renal-therapy company. Pulse oximeters sit in patient monitoring; peritoneal dialysis machines sit in renal care. They have different clinical workflows and different regulatory paths.

It's tempting to think a large medical device manufacturer makes everything. That oversimplification is expensive. Search engines group medical devices together, so brand and product keywords can end up in the same list. If you need a pulse oximeter or a peritoneal dialysis machine, check the actual manufacturer and the FDA 510(k) database before you start an RFI. I checked that database again in January 2025 while researching this topic.

Why does STERIS Franklin Park show up in quotes or service paperwork?

Franklin Park is a STERIS location that appears on service and invoice documents for certain accounts. I do not read it as a separate company. It is usually an operational or service facility reference. The visible city name does not change the product specification.

What matters for procurement is the service responsibility behind that location. If you see STERIS Franklin Park on an agreement, ask the sales representative which site owns warranty support, where the nearest service engineer is located, and how service parts are shipped. The last one matters most, because parts logistics determine whether a repair takes two days or five days.

What should I compare before approving a STERIS quote?

I compare total cost of ownership over five to seven years, not just the initial purchase price. The mandatory line items include freight and rigging, installation, utilities and connections, validation or protocol testing, staff training, preventive maintenance, replacement parts, consumables, software updates, and remote monitoring.

One of the reasons I built this checklist is a mistake from 2023. I nearly approved a quote because the base price looked 20 percent lower than the alternative. What I missed until final review was that installation, water connections, validation, and training were listed as separate additions. The lower project came out higher than the other option by the time it was ready to run. I only trust a quote after I have added every mandatory line.

I also ask for the preventive maintenance task descriptions. If a service schedule for a sterilizer does not line up with the equipment's FDA-cleared labeling and the relevant AAMI practice, I send it back. A service contract that skips the validation details is not a complete quote.

Do all OR and sterile processing products need to be one brand?

No. I would rather standardize around a workflow than around a logo. If the sterile processing team already uses STERIS sterilizers and endoscope reprocessors, adding another STERIS product in that workflow can reduce training and service complexity. But I would not automatically buy surgical lights and tables from the same company only because the purchase order looks neater.

The decision rule is to standardize where staff training, service, or data integration actually overlap. In our 2024 OR renovation, we did not use one manufacturer for every piece in the room. It was a mixed-vendor room, and it worked because we defined the clinical workflow first and checked every service boundary before signing. That approach is less glamorous, but it keeps the budget honest.

What is the one budget question I'd ask before signing?

What does the five-year service schedule actually include?

Capital equipment gets attention because the numbers are large. But in my cost tracking, service and consumables often end up costing more over time than the device itself. That is not unique to STERIS; it is how medical capital equipment works. Here is something vendors won't always tell you: the service contract is part of the commercial negotiation. The best time to lock in service rates is before the capital purchase, not after the equipment is installed and downtime becomes unacceptable.

Ask for a five-year schedule with parts, labor, preventive maintenance visits, response time, an inflation cap, excluded consumables, and remote diagnostics included. That last point connects to efficiency: if the device can report cycle data and error codes, your team has a chance to fix small issues before they become expensive downtime. But only if the quote includes the data connection and the software sends information to someone who will act on it. I have learned to ask for that in writing.