Power in numbers

A wealth of evidence and organizations advocate counting technology as an adjunct to manual counts to make a meaningful difference in reducing retained surgical sponges which studies show are the #1 retained surgical item.^1,2,7,20,21

Knowing is power

Brigham and Women’s Hospital data show:

41%

of [count] discrepancies
are due to human error.²⁰

Brigham and Women’s Hospital data show:

A discrepancy in the count occurs in

1 of 8 cases or once per 14 hours of operating time.²⁰

Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority data show:

Discrepant counts were associated with

22%

of unintentionally retained foreign objects (URFO).²¹

The Joint Commission data show:

An incorrect or discrepant count in

6.7%

(52 of 772) of URFO sentinel events reported.⁷

“We know that the actual number of retained surgical items is vastly under-reported, likely accounting for not much more than 10% of the events that actually occur.”¹²

Ronald Wyatt, M.D., Medical Director, The Joint Commission