the contents of the can.
• Combined approach. RFID — radio frequency identification —
goes a step further by alerting you to the exact location, type and
number of sponges in the surgical site. It's kind of like your car's E-
ZPass. It can tell not only that a car went through the detector, but
which car and who owns it.
Each sponge has its own unique RFID transmitter that can be detect-
ed by a wand device and scanned into and out of a program on a
touch-screen tablet. The RFID sponge location system can not only tell
you how many RFID sponges have been used and if any have been left
behind, it will also tell you where they are. A digital read-out of the
missing sponge(s) will appear on the screen of the tablet.
This system has both the capability to count the RFID sponges using
a hand-held device and detect them using and RFID wand should you
need to find the sponge inside the patient or somewhere else in the
OR.
OSM
9 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 9
Ms. Cabagnot (candcaba@gmail.com) works at Keck Medical Center of USC in
Los Angeles, Calif.
