Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Outpatient Surgery Edition - Hot Technology - April 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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5 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 1 9 Keeping tabs on instrument trays that are constantly on the move from the OR to sterile processing and back again can be a real headache, and it's not always easy to know where they are at a given moment. At Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., staff use a scanner and barcode sys- tem to keep track of nearly 1,000 instrument trays. The 51-OR facility performs more than 5,000 cases annually and keeping track of all those trays is a big responsibility, says Jay D. Libutan, BSN, RN, CNOR, a staff and clinical nurse at the hospital. To implement the system, Duke assigned a barcode label to every tray and added barcode scanners to each OR and to mobile workstations throughout the facility. Staff members scan trays every time they're used in the OR, reprocessed and put in stor- age. Each scan creates a digital record of when and how often specific instruments are used. It's invaluable information for understanding how many instruments you need based on case volume. The barcode system lets staff know where instruments and implant trays are in real time so they can locate them on demand, which is especially important during back-to-back pro- Do You Know Where Your Instruments Are? • SMART SCAN A barcode system can help your staff locate instruments as they move throughout the facility. Jay D. Libutan, BSN, RN, CNOR HIGH-TECH TRACKING

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