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| Surgical Objects Left Inside About 1,500 US Patients Per Year |
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| SciMed - Healthcare | |||
| TS-Si News Service | |||
| Monday, 10 December 2007 20:00 | |||
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Now, where did I leave that?
 Choosing A Surgeon. Planning for a sex change involves an assessment of surgical options for Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS — aka GRS) and quite possibly a variety of other related surgical procedures. The doctors and surgeons you consider should fit at least these basic criteria: 1. The doctor is board certified by one or more of the 24 member boards of the the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS). 2. The doctor is an active member of medical societies that relate to her or his specialty, and those with missions for public safety, ethics and excellence in practice. See the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). 3. The doctor practices exclusively in the specialty in which he or she holds board certification. For example, there is no requirement that a doctor have any training or experience to purchase breast implants and surgically place them into your body. Certification is important. 4. The doctor listens to your concerns and answers your questions directly. The focus is on you. 5. The doctor has performed the procedure you are interested in (e.g., SRS) many times and can provide recent before-and-after photographs of actual patients. The doctor should explain the outcomes and how they were achieved. 6. The doctor performs all procedures that require more than a local (topical) anesthetic in accredited or licensed office-based, ambulatory or hospital surgical facilities. The doctor should clearly define the anesthesia you will have and the credentials of the person charged with its administration. 7. The doctor has privileges at a local accredited hospital facility to perform the specific surgical procedure you are considering. If a local hospital has barred the doctor to perform surgery on hospital property, do not consider letting this doctor perform surgery on you. 8. The office is clean and orderly. The staff is respectful of your time and presence. The attention you get should be consistent. Your privacy is respected. You should feel safe and welcomed. 9. You have checked with the applicable state medical board and the doctor is licensed to practice in the state. There should be no prior or pending actions against her or him. Lawsuits are frequent but only actual negligence can jeopardize the status of a doctor’s medical license. 10. You are comfortable with the doctor and willing to place your life in her or his hands. Every year in the US about 1,500 people have surgical objects accidentally left inside them after surgery, according to medical studies.
“When there is significant bleeding and a sponge is placed in a patient, it can sometimes look indistinguishable from the tissue around it,” said Dr. Steven DeJong. About two-thirds of the surgical objects left behind are sponges. These objects can lead to pain, infection, bowel obstructions, problems in healing, longer hospital stays, additional surgeries and in rare cases, death.
 “Unintentional retained sponges and instruments is a devastating complication for patients and is a national problem affecting every hospital in the country that performs invasive and surgical procedures,” says DeJong, vice chair, department of surgery, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. To prevent this potentially deadly problem, Loyola University Medical Center is the first center in the Midwest to utilize a new technology that is helping its surgical teams keep track of all sponges used during a surgical procedure. The new system was brought to Loyola through the efforts of the hospital’s operating room nurses.
This technology is very familiar to anyone who has ever used a grocery checkout system. Each sponge has a unique bar code affixed to it that is scanned by a high-tech device to obtain a count. Before a procedure begins, the identification number of the patient and the badge of the surgical team member maintaining the count are scanned into the counter. As an added safety feature, the bar code is heat sealed into the sponge to eliminate any danger of it becoming detached during a procedure.
The Loyola University Health System is among the first to utilize a new technology that helps surgical teams keep track of all sponges used during a procedure. The counter has a color screen that keeps a running count of the sponges used. It provides visual and audio cues when a sponge is scanned in, scanned out and if one is missing or is being counted twice. Because each bar code is unique, the system will not allow a sponge to be accidentally counted twice. “We perform complex cases that we do on a frequent basis that require hundreds of sponges. Sometimes things move very fast, especially when you’re doing an operation for trauma. It’s not too hard to imagine that something might be missed,” said Jo Quetsch, RN, clinical director, surgical services at Loyola.
Quetsch is a member of the surgical nursing leadership team that played a key role in bringing the new system to Loyola. “This device will help us eliminate the human factor in our standard counting procedure,” Quetsch added. “We are definitely able to keep track of all sponges.”
When a sponge is removed from a patient, it is scanned back into the system. A surgical procedure cannot end until all sponges are accounted for. If a sponge is missing, the device will alert the surgical team what kind of sponge it is and the time it was scanned in. When the count is completed and approved at the end of a procedure, the system can print, archive or download a report as backup documentation and the count.
“This isn’t replacing our standard counting procedures,” Quetsch said. “We will continue to do three hand counts as always – one count when a patient is receiving a sponge, another count when closing begins and a last count at the end of closing.”
The system, which is FDA approved, is being used in all of Loyola’s operating rooms, its labor and delivery rooms, interventional cardiology laboratories in which surgical procedures are performed and its ambulatory surgery sites. As the technology grows, Loyola plans to use it to keep track of all medical equipment used during a procedure.
“This is another safety measure that we’re certain will help us deliver the safest, highest-quality patient care available,” said Dr. Paul K. Whelton, MSc, president & CEO, the Loyola University Health System.
 The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.TS-Si is dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, and legal protection of individuals correcting the misalignment of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 December 2007 02:12 |
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