By SALINA POST
Salina Regional Health Center (SRHC) can count among its accomplishments being a first in the world.
On Wednesday, SRHC became the first hospital in the world to implement Stryker’s SurgiCount+ Safety Sponge System, a process aimed at reducing surgical risk, improving workflow, and reducing stress for surgical staff members, according to information from SRHC.
"SurgiCount+ uses ultra-high radio frequency identification (RFID) technology embedded in each surgical sponge to track its use during surgery. Nurses count-in and count-out each sponge used during a procedure using a RFID reader. If a sponge is missing after a procedure, nurses can use the wireless reader to scan the room and locate it," the hospital noted in a news release this afternoon.
Why is this new and different? According to SRHC, optical scanning technology previously was used to scan bar codes on sponges, which didn't help locate missing sponges.
“The technology provides an added level of security over manual counts, which can have human errors,” said Kelley Drake, Surgical Services nursing director at Salina Regional. “It’s also a step towards achieving the new Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) Center of Excellence in Surgical Safety, which we are striving for.”
Salina Regional has implemented the technology for use in all of its operating rooms, Cardiac Cath Lab, and Labor and Delivery Department, the hospital noted.
"Major surgeries like heart bypass and trauma surgeries can use up to 100 sponges in each surgery. Counting out and locating all of the sponges used during a surgery is important. Retained sponges, while rare, can lead to adverse patient outcomes. For this reason, accurate sponge counting has always been a critical component to surgical safety," SRHC reported.
“We’re excited to be a leader in using this advanced technology,” Drake said.
According to SRHC, a number of hospitals in the United States are converting to the new SurgiCount+ system in the coming months.
"Advances in the technology are also planned for release in the upcoming months that will allow the device to optically measure blood loss, which will help minimize manual calculating errors," the hospital noted.