With the wave of a wand or the scan of a bar code, you can count and validate surgical sponges faster and more accurately than doing so by hand. Today’s high-tech products not only remove the tedium of counting sponges, but also help you prevent the most frequently retained foreign object — yes, the sponge. You’ll pay for the scanning technology and for sponges with RFID tags or bar codes sewn into them, but isn’t greater efficiency and safety worth a slightly higher ($12 to $40) cost per case?