Sponge Counting Technology Enhances Patient Safety

A bar-coded, computer-assisted, surgical sponge counting system reduces the chance of counting errors during patient surgery by a factor of 3 to 1.

The Safety-Sponge System is a computer-assisted adjunct counting technology designed specifically to address the true cause of retained items--false positive counts. The Safety-Sponge system prevents false correct counts of surgical sponges by computerizing with a simple scanner all sponge counts in and out of the operating room (OR). The system is comprised of surgical sponges and towels affixed with an inseparable two-dimensional data matrix bar code, and a counter scanner (Surgicounter) used to record each sponge before and after an operation. Because all sponges are identified with a unique code, they cannot be counted twice. At the end of a procedure, the system can either immediately produce a printed report or the information can be imported into a database program. The system offers complete sponge inventory tracking, reporting features, and integration with a medical facility's information technology (IT) system.

When using the system, the staff concurrently scans sponges during their manual counts or can scan the items before or after the manual count. The SurgiCounters can be hand-held by circulator staff, or can be placed on a holster on an intravenous (IV) pole in a hands-free mode. By scanning in the unique labels, the system builds a database of items used in that particular procedure. At the end of the procedure when the circulator is counting out the sponges, the circulator will again swipe the sponge under the SurgiCounter, this time in order to "count” the sponge out of the database. Because each sponge has a unique bar code, the system automatically alerts the staff in case they have accidentally tried to count the same sponge twice. This assists the staff in validating that they have an accurate count in case the there was a manual counting error. The software also captures the opening staff as well as the closing staff. The system offers electronic records and measurable outcomes for the sponge counts that hospitals can provide regulatory and accrediting bodies. The Safety-Sponge system is a product of SurgiCount Medical (Temecula, CA, USA).

"In the past, retained sponges were treated as an institutional speeding ticket,” said Bill Adams, CEO of SurgiCount Medical. "Today, the problem is being treated as more of an institutional DUI [driving under influence] by the insurance and accreditation agencies.”

Several state authorities in the United States have initiated mandatory reporting policies calling for hospitals to annually disclose preventable medical errors. These so called "never events”, which include foreign objects and surgical sponges retained during surgery, will furthermore not be covered by major U.S. insurers, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross, effective from October 2008.


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