Medline Industries, Inc. is now the exclusive distributor for the SmartWand-DTX™ and SmartSponge® System, the only FDA-cleared systems using radio-frequency identification to both count and locate surgical sponges. The systems, created by Pittsburgh-based ClearCount Medical Solutions, use a technology featuring chip-embedded sponges to count and locate sponges during surgery which, in turn, helps eliminate surgical errors and improve patient safety.
Retained surgical sponges are a big problem. They can hurt and even kill affected patients and cost hospitals an average of $63,000 in follow-up operation expenses (according to Federal Register and Medicare statistics) per incident, not including legal fees and potentially large settlements. Human counting error is the most common cause of unaccounted-for sponges being left behind. Integrating radio frequency identification (RFID) chip technology into surgical sponges — the sterile, absorbent textiles used inside a patient during an operation — gives surgeons and operating room teams a new tool to prevent the anxiety of a potentially devastating operating room error.
Conceptually, the process is a little like finding a coin on the beach with a metal detector, but much more high-tech and precise. Each sponge has its own ID number coded in its RFID tag. The SmartSponge System can read and record the unique ID number of each sponge as it comes out of its packaging in the OR, as it is used in the patient, and as it is removed and disposed of. Both the SmartSponge and SmartWand-DTX count multiple sponges and read through blood and tissue, and they can locate a missing tagged sponge using radio waves to signal the RFID tag to identify itself. Both systems also use the same RFID-tagged consumables, providing hospitals for the first time with a choice of devices to best address the unique conditions of each OR.
Despite designation as a “never event,” retained items are estimated to occur in one of every 1,000 to 1,500 abdominal surgical procedures. In one study using a retrospective review of medical malpractice claims data from a statewide insurer in Massachusetts, sponge counts had been falsely correct in 76 percent of non-vaginal surgical cases involving retained sponges. Falsely correct sponge counts were attributed to team fatigue, difficult or long operations, sponges “sticking together,” shift changes or procedures with a large number of sponges.
