West L.A. hospital to test smart sponge in hopes of decreasing surgical accidents
Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, September 15, 2006
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!
Put a sponge in, and take one out. It sounds simple enough, but a new barcode system will be tested by the Veterans Administration West Los Angeles Health Care Center this month to provide a double check.
The Safety-Sponge system will require surgeons to scan a sponge before use and then again after surgery, ensuring that each one is out. Surgeons will be alerted to mistakes before a patient is sewn back up.
SurgiCount Medical, which launched the product, says that about 3,000-5,000 sponges are left inside patients each year, costing hospitals $500 million-$750 million in compensation.
Sources: E-Health Insider and SurgiCount Medical press release
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!
Related Products
-
Strategies for Nurse Managers
Strategies for Nurse Managers is a 12-page monthly how-to newsletter that was created exclusively to help you save time...
-
Nurse Leader Weekly
Our informative free e-mail newsletter for nursing professionals delivers helpful tips and advice each week!
-
Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education
This e-mail newsletter reports on innovative training methods and mandatory training requirements. You'll also find tips on...
-
From Hostility to Collegiality:
Nurse retention, nurse satisfaction, patient safety, and quality improvement are all compromised when hostility permeates...
-
Nurse Accountability: Six Steps to Create a Culture of Commitment
This 90-minute webcast introduces six cutting-edge concepts to help you get people to make and keep commitments. Speaker...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- HIPAA Q&A: Answering service messages
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Q&A: Coding for dry skin due to cold weather
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Are your workforce members texting PHI?
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Privacy, security concerns high in HIEs
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- HIPAA Q&A: Answering service messages
- HIPAA Q&A: TPO disclosures to a business associate
- Are your workforce members texting PHI?
- Q&A: Coding for dry skin due to cold weather
- Hospitalist-surgeon comanagement has no effect on outcomes
- Don't let these sentinel events trigger falsely
- Correctly bill ancillary bedside procedures in addition to the room rate
- Searched