Patent ID: 7677395

Claim:
A method for directing a sharps container to a processing station to recover reprocessable medical devices, wherein the sharps container can contain reprocessable medical devices, as well as unusable medical devices and medical waste that should be destroyed, comprising the steps of: (a) conveying the sharps container to the processing station to enable accessing contents of the sharps containers, wherein said processing station is at least one processing station selected from the group of processing stations consisting of: (i) a disposal processing station that enables destruction of one of the sharps containers and at least a portion of the contents of the sharps container; (ii) a disinfection processing station that enables one of a sterilization and cleaning, and a disinfection of at least one of the sharps container and at least a portion of the contents of the sharps container; (iii) a sharps container opening processing station that enables opening the sharps container; and (iv) a separation processing station that enables separation of reprocessable medical devices from at least one of non-reprocessable medical devices, and medical waste that should be destroyed; (b) operating on the sharps container at the processing station; and (c) recovering the reprocessable medical devices from the sharps container, while discarding unusable medical devices and medical waste.