Stryker has announced the release of the SurgiCount Tablet, a new touch-screen interface for its revolutionary SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System, which supports the fight against retained surgical sponges and promotes patient safety.
“We’ve taken our SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System to the next level with the SurgiCount Tablet,” says Nate Miersma, director of surgical safety at Stryker. “The new interface offers expanded capabilities that make it even easier to keep track of each individual sponge or towel used in a surgery and dramatically reduce the risk of a retained sponge.”
Retained surgical items (RSIs) are the No. 1 reported surgical “never event,” and 69 percent of all RSIs are retained surgical sponges. There are an estimated 11 incidents of surgical sponges being left inside patients every day in the United States, resulting in unnecessary pain and suffering and an average annual cost of $2.4 billion to the health care system.
The SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System utilizes uniquely identified sponges and towels to provide a precise, real-time count so the surgical team can close a procedure — and a patient — with confidence. The hospital’s SurgiCount 360 software maintains a record of the SurgiCount-verified correct count so that surgeons, nurses and hospital administrators have a permanent record of the verified count.
(Image credit: Stryker)
The new SurgiCount Tablet features a large, 10-inch display and interactive touch screen with more menu options, including wound-pack reconciliation. Pole or wall-mount options enable hands-free operation, and a slip-in battery slot allows for continuous operation without shutting down.
The SurgiCount Tablet also features new Wi-Fi capability with real-time, fully encrypted data transfer to a secure cloud-based server that offers integration with SurgiCount 360 software and an administrator portal for password-protected VPN access from any onsite or remote computer.
Numerous independent organizations — including The Joint Commission, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses and the American College of Surgeons — recommend the use of adjunct technology to supplement manual sponge counting to reduce the risk of retained sponges.
The SurgiCount system is currently in use in more than 530 hospitals nationwide. In an estimated 11 million-plus procedures utilizing 200 million sponges over the past five years, the system has never failed to identify a retained sponge.
