Boosting patient safety in surgery

One important aspect of surgical safety hinges on the meticulous tracking and documentation of supplies throughout the entire procedure. Supply validation and utilization documentation plays a crucial role in protecting patients.

This data is invaluable for patient safety:

Preventing use of unsafe items: Healthcare technology can integrate with hospital databases to flag expired or recalled items. An alert can appear when a staff member attempts to scan such an item, preventing its use during surgery.

Robust recall management: In the unfortunate event of a product recall, a digital record of utilized supplies allows for efficient patient notification and potential follow-up action. This ensures patient safety is prioritized even after surgery.

Inventory control: Knowing exactly what supplies were used helps hospitals optimize inventory, ensuring demand-driven procurement so that the right supplies are always at hand during surgery.

Every item used in surgery needs to be captured and electronically recorded in the EHR. Full UDI (unique device identification) data needs to be logged for implants and medical devices. At the end of surgery there needs to be a digital record that tracks what was used on each patient.

Operating rooms (OR) and procedural areas rely on the continual supply of vital inventory. Efficient supply management is paramount for successful surgery, ensuring both optimal workflow and patient safety. Here's a surgical patient safety checklist relating to supply chain managment in the surgical setting:

Automated Inventory Management - three important areas for the checklist relate to ensuring full insight into the inventory, that means understanding:
- which items are due to expire and need to be prioritized for usage
- which items are running low and need restocking
- which items need to be removed from stock due to expiry/recall issues

UDI Management - tracking the unique device identifier is vital to protect patients. It's important to have a strong process in place to capture and store data to ensure end-to-end implant tracking in OR and procedural spaced.

Visibility and Accessibility: The checklist should cover gaining an overview of the stock, ideally using technology. Having a system that provides real-time item location helps staff to quickly pick the items they need, reducing wasted time searching for missing items and ensuring prompt care.

Any patient safety checklist in surgical areas relating to supply chain management should include these important areas which underpin the delivery of high quality and timely care. Using automated inventory management solutions can significantly improve supply management and patient safety in the OR.