Success of Hospital Pilot to Document Implants is First Step Leading to Data Analytics Used to Combat Dangers Stated in Netflix Documentary "The Bleeding Edge" - Seite 2

AHRMM participates in the Blueberry Castle project and hosts and convenes several Learning UDI Community workgroups designed to solve challenges in UDI adoption. Schiller said, "AHRMM is excited to be a part of this project and looks forward to seeing continued success in this arena." He said, "UDI adoption has the potential to reduce healthcare costs while improving patient outcomes in the long term."  Schiller stated, "hospital sterilized medical device documentation has been a challenge, but one we are solving."

PRIOR PILOTS

Prior simulated surgery pilot results at Wickenburg Community Hospital in Wickenburg Arizona concluded that only two methods could collect all medical device information, including lot numbers, expiration dates and serial numbers. Richard Wedig, Chief of Clinic and Surgical Services Officer at Wickenburg Hospital said, "other documentation methods were shown to be error prone, could slow down surgery and could not document detailed implant information." Wedig said "We found there are only two methods to collect the UDI during surgery; packaging scanning and sterile-field scanning."

Scanning UDI placed onto packaging requires two staff members. One is usually the circulating nurse, who is responsible for patient safety during surgery. The circulator is diverted from his or her primary patient safety task each time he or she must search for the exact package from a large cart of implants, verify the package integrity, scan the label, open the package, drop the implant onto a sterile table.  Once the device is placed onto the sterile table, the surgical scrub technician retrieves it, loads the device onto a tool and hands it off to the surgeon.  "While this is occurring, the surgeon is waiting," said Mitch Wagner, MD., orthopaedic surgeon at Wickenburg Community Hospital.

ADVOCATING FOR PATIENT SAFETY

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) is the leader in advocating for patient safety and excellence in perioperative practice and healthcare.  As a coalition participant, AORN noted that challenges were identified with manufacturer sterilized packaging and has advocated for full UDI documentation prior to implantation.  Those challenges require large amounts of storage space, have potential sterile packaging failures, and increased surgical times while the patient is under anesthesia.