SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR COUNTING SURGICAL IMPLEMENTS
First Claim
1. A method for accounting for surgical articles used in a surgical procedure, said method comprising:
- providing a package which contains a plurality of individual surgical articles, wherein each individual surgical article comprises machine readable information which uniquely distinguishes that article from all other articles in the package and wherein the package comprises machine readable information which includes the information of each individual article;
prior to the surgical procedure, scanning the machine readable information on the package with a scanner that provides the unique identification information from each individual surgical article to a computer to produce a list of surgical articles available for use in the procedure;
using at least some of the individual surgical articles from the package in the surgical procedure where others of the unique surgical articles may not be used;
after the surgical procedure, collecting the surgical articles which have been used in the procedure,scanning the machine readable information on the individual surgical articles which have been used in the procedure and the machine readable information on the articles from the package that were not used in the procedure with a scanner into the computer to produce a list of articles accounted for after the procedure; and
comparing the list of articles available for use with the list of articles accounted for to determine if there are any unaccounted articles.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Surgical sponges and other articles are provided with machine-readable information which provides a serial number or other unique identification of the sponge. In addition, the machine-readable information will provide the type of article and/or a characteristic visual motif associated with the article. That way, by scanning the machine-readable information from the sponges or other articles prior to a procedure, the computer or other digital processor can determine which articles may be missing after the procedure and alert the surgical team as to the type and/or characteristic visual motif of the missing article.
-
Citations
17 Claims
-
1. A method for accounting for surgical articles used in a surgical procedure, said method comprising:
-
providing a package which contains a plurality of individual surgical articles, wherein each individual surgical article comprises machine readable information which uniquely distinguishes that article from all other articles in the package and wherein the package comprises machine readable information which includes the information of each individual article; prior to the surgical procedure, scanning the machine readable information on the package with a scanner that provides the unique identification information from each individual surgical article to a computer to produce a list of surgical articles available for use in the procedure; using at least some of the individual surgical articles from the package in the surgical procedure where others of the unique surgical articles may not be used; after the surgical procedure, collecting the surgical articles which have been used in the procedure, scanning the machine readable information on the individual surgical articles which have been used in the procedure and the machine readable information on the articles from the package that were not used in the procedure with a scanner into the computer to produce a list of articles accounted for after the procedure; and comparing the list of articles available for use with the list of articles accounted for to determine if there are any unaccounted articles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A system of surgical articles to be used in a surgical procedure, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of individual surgical articles, each article having machine-readable information thereon, said machine-readable information including information which uniquely distinguishes that particular article from all other articles in the system; and a package holding all of the individual surgical articles, said package having machine-readable information which includes the unique information of each individual article, wherein scanning of the package information provides a computer with the unique identification of each surgical article in the package. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
Specification