Did you know, statistically, that one out of every 10,000 patients who have surgery leave the operating room with a surgical sponge or other foreign object inside their body? While this type of unfortunate incidence is rare, it does happen and there are people attempting to come up with a way to make sure the odds of it happening are reduced to zero. One solution being considered is the placement of a radiofrequency ID (RFID) chip in surgical sponges. At the end of surgery, a wand to detect the chip is waved over the patient. The wand would alert the surgical staff if a sponge has been left in the body of the patient.
The current method involves a sponge count. Sponges are counted before surgery and then counted again at the end of surgery. But, according to the researchers, counting is susceptible to human error. At this time, they are working out the cost-effectiveness of the chip in surgical sponges -- and how they would go about changing work flow in the operating room.
