The University of Michigan Health System has launched a new technology initiative to track tools used during surgery, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 2/7).
Ella Kazerooni -- UM professor of radiology and UM Health System associate chair of clinical affairs -- said, "Unfortunately, in complex cases, surgical cases that involve emergencies or very large patients, items can be left behind in the body and we want to do everything we can to prevent that."
Tracking Surgical Items
To better track surgical tools, the health system has:
- Replaced its manual radiology orders with an electronic order system that allows for faster imaging when surgical teams suspect an object was left inside of a patient;
- Placed radiopaque tags on all surgical sponges that allow the radiologists to see any sponges left inside patients on X-rays; and
- Put barcodes on all sponges to scan for changes to the item during surgery (Godt, CMIO, 2/8).