Market Overview

In this research, the market of hospital equipment and supplies refer to 27 items of 14 categories of major hospital equipment and supplies. The items include hospital information systems (ordering systems, electronic medical records), CSSD and infection prevention equipment managed by CSSD (washer-disinfectors, autoclaves), operation room equipment (surgical lights, headlight systems, operating tables, ceiling arms, perioperative hand hygiene/antisepsis equipment), dose dispensing machines (drug packaging machines, drug package printing systems), and other equipment and devices used in hospital wards (air sterilizers, stretchers, automatic re-visitor reception machines, and automatic payment machines). Instruments directly used for diagnosis or medical treatments are not included.

The market size of hospital equipment and supplies for FY2022 is estimated at 182,585.1 million yen, down 0.4% from the preceding fiscal year. Decline owes to the fact that, even though hospitals reinstated budget for replacement or new installations that were "froze"/postponed during the Covid-19 crisis, financial deterioration that has led quite a few of them to downgrade the equipment.

Future Outlook

EOG (ethylene oxide gas) sterilizer, which is capable of disinfect medical supplies at relatively low temperature and low moisture compared to autoclaves, has been used mostly for medical devices using plastic or rubber that are heat/moisture sensitive and for precision instrument with complex structure.

Nevertheless, in accordance with the government enforcement of the Japanese PRTR Act in 2001 (Law Concerning Reporting, etc. of Release of Specific Chemical Substances to the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management Thereof), the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare added EOG to the list of controlled products under Industrial Safety and Health Law, mandating operators (hospitals) to take responsibility for the management of EOG. Similar ordinances are also issued by municipal governments. Furthermore, the “Guidelines for the Promotion of Voluntary Management of Ethylene Oxide by Businesses" by the Ministry of the Environment insisted operators to reduce emissions by choice. Under the circumstances, the market of EOG sterilizers is shrinking.

However, because the low temperature sterilization is indispensable for medical operations, hospitals are increasingly outsourcing the management of low temperature sterilization. Meanwhile, equipment manufacturers are developing alternative products, such as hydrogen peroxide sterilizer, hydrogen peroxide gas plasma sterilizer, and steam-formaldehyde sterilizer.

Research Outline