Safety Advocacy

Taking a stand听together

Government, clinical societies, quality organizations and patient safety groups have taken note of the concerning prevalence of retained surgical items (RSI) and agree there鈥檚 more to be done. They鈥檙e addressing RSI in various ways including educational efforts, incident reporting, payment structures and protocol recommendations that include adjunctive technology such as the SurgiCount System.

What experts are saying

鈥淎 multidisciplinary team may evaluate adjunct technologies for use as a supplement to manual counting.鈥18
AORN 2016 Guidelines
Recommendation VII

鈥淎 systems approach should be used for prevention of RSIs. Healthcare organizations should value learning and respond to errors with a focus on process improvement rather than individual blame.鈥18
AORN 2016 Guidelines
Recommendation X

鈥淭his event [unintended retention of foreign objects] is reflective of system problems and rarely the result of a single individual鈥檚 error. Faulty, incomplete, or ineffective systems cause humans to err.鈥9
ECRI Research Response on Adjunctive Technologies

鈥淭he 10 patient safety concerns on this list are very real. They are causing harm鈥攐ften serious harm鈥攖o real people. Fortunately, for all of the patient safety concerns on this year鈥檚 list, more can be done.鈥9
William M. Marella, MBA, MMI
Executive Director, PSO Operations and Analytics
ECRI Institute鈥檚 Patient Safety, Risk and Quality Group

鈥淒espite the powerful stories of improving and high-performing hospitals, improvement across the board remains elusive鈥ospitals are performing worse on critical measures like foreign objects left in after surgery.鈥24
The Leapfrog Group
Fall 2015 Hospital Safety Score Report

RSIs are considered an outcomes measure 鈥 a measure of harm experienced by patients 鈥 and are weighted at 4.2%.25
The Leapfrog Group
Spring 2016 Scoring Methodology

鈥淪afe technology: Research the potential of using assistive technologies to supplement manual counting procedures and methodical wound exploration.鈥7
The Joint Commission
Sentinel Event Alert

鈥淎uthority reports suggest that RSI prevention remains a challenge and that continued diligence in RSI prevention efforts is essential.鈥21
Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority
Safety Advisory

鈥淏ecause counting alone may be insufficient, the Authority presented multipronged risk reduction strategies, including improved perioperative processes, perioperative team communication, and the use of assistive technology.鈥21

鈥淢anual counting methods are not fool-proof, as they are subject to human error. Newer techniques, which include automated counting and tracking of sponges, appear to increase the accuracy of counting and the detection of inadvertently retained sponges.鈥27
World Health Organization
Guidelines for Safe Surgery


鈥淪urgeons and nurses are the primary defenders against retention, and only behavior change to actually use these safe practices will prevent patient harm.鈥23

Verna C. Gibbs, M.D., Director, No Thing Left Behind

Unintentionally retained foreign objects, despite a correct count rank #8 on ECRI鈥檚 Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2016.9


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