Systems and methods for counting surgical implements

• US 7,703,674 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2008
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stryker Corporation
• Original Assignee: Patient Safety Technologies Incorporated (Stryker Corporation)
• Inventors: Stewart, Brian E., Soichet, Nicolas
• Primary Examiner(s): Frech; Karl D.
• Application Number:
  US12/237,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20090014518A1
• Time in Patent Office: 580 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.01, 235/462.13, 235/375, 235/385
• US Class Current: 235/385
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/44 with radio-opaque material or signalling means for residual material
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/40 relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation

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.

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.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the articles are gauze articles.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein the machine readable information on each articles comprises labels on exterior of each gauze article.

4. A method as in claim 3, wherein the machine readable package information comprises a label on the exterior of the package.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein the individual surgical articles each have a type and/or a characteristic visual motif and machine-readable information on each article includes (1) identification information, and (2) information on the type of article and/or visual motif of the article;

Said method further comprising displaying the type and/or visual motif of each unaccounted article.

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.

7. A system as in claim 6, wherein the articles are gauze items.

8. A system as in claim 6, wherein the machine-readable information further includes at least type information.

9. A system as in claim 8, wherein the type information includes size.

10. A system as in claim 8, wherein the machine-readable information further includes at least the characteristic visual motif.

11. A systems as in claim 10, wherein the common visual motif comprises a characteristic selected from the group consisting of color of at least a portion of the article, a pattern on at least a portion of the article, a color on at least a portion of a label, anchor a pattern on at least a portion of the label.

12. A system as in claim 8, wherein the surgical articles include at least a first plurality of articles of a first type and a second plurality of articles of a second type, wherein each plurality has a characteristic visual motif which is common for that type, allowing the different types to be visually distinguished.

13. A system as in claim 12, wherein a fixed number of different characteristic visual motifs are distributed among all of the articles used in the procedure.

14. A system as in claim 13, wherein there are at least three different characteristic visual motifs distributed among the articles.

15. A system as in claim 13, wherein there are at least eight different characteristic visual motifs distributed among the articles.

16. A system as in claim 8, wherein the machine-readable information on the package provides type anchor visual motif information for all of the individual articles in the package.

17. A system as in claim 6, wherein the package comprises a wrap.