|
|
|
Happy New Year! 2010 Patient Safety Highlights |
 |
|
 |
|
|
A letter from the ClearCount Medical Solutions CEO, David Palmer
Dear Friends of ClearCount:
2010 was a good year for patient safety and for ClearCount. We added new customers and we saw evidence that small hospitals are as likely as large to adopt technologies to improve patient safety. We also saw, through amazing support, that the insurance industry is looking at patient safety as an excellent bet for the future of keeping healthcare costs under control. This came in the form of the expansion of our Never Event Warranty to include insurance partners Aon and CNA. Our coverage is now set at $2M for costs associated with a retained sponge incident, for hospitals that use our SmartSponge System or SmartWand-DTX correctly. Talk about the perfect combination of patient safety, efficiency and financial protection for any OR looking to raise the bar!
Here are some patient safety stories that recently caught our interest: |
|
1) A new report in JAAPA, the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, gives clinical preference to RFID, reporting the following: “The most promising new technology is the RFID tag. The research regarding this method has proven that it is effective and easy to use. RFID tags can improve detection of surgical sponges and instruments intraoperatively.” We encourage you to read more of this informative and comprehensive look at all options for avoiding retained surgical items. |
|
|
|
Enlarge Image
|
2) Our research department recently came across a 2007 AHRQ study, which unfortunately shows no improvement in the incidence of retained surgical items between 2000 and 2007, despite industry efforts to educate on the issue and improve manual counting practices. The AHRQ data provides a clear indication that greater awareness and optimization of manual counting processes has not effectively reduced the number of incidents over the past decade. Technology is a proven way to provide a check-and-balance improvement over manual counting, and has now been highlighted in the new AORN Recommended Practices for Avoiding Retained Surgical Items. |
|
|
3) On the legal front, there continues to be frequent evidence of the damage retained surgical sponge incidents create for all parties. One case notable for its size was a recent lawsuit in Victoria, TX, which resulted in a $4M settlement. |
 |
|
|
4) We'd like to highlight two hospitals among those who have signed on with ClearCount in recent months:
Hunt Regional in Greenville TX (near Dallas) is acknowledging that human error is real and doing something about it, supplementing nurses' surgical sponge counting, so that no sponge is left behind. And Jane Phillips Hospital outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has also adopted our system.
These are community hospitals where innovation is a major part of the culture. We're excited to see that hospitals of all sizes are interested in improvements to patient safety. |
|
|
5) Finally, we have a new website that should help you better navigate your options for adopting an RFID platform into your hospital. We hope you'll check it out at www.clearcount.com. |
|
|
As always, when thinking about your options for improving patient safety in your hospital, be sure to give us a call!
Enjoy!
Best regards, |
|
|
 |
Enlarge Image