7 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 2 0
H
ow long would
it take you to
check the
number of sur-
geries a tray of
knee replacement instruments
or laparoscopic tools were used
in last week? Can you link them
to specific cases or patients?
There's no shortage of access to
information in health care, yet
some facilities lack the ability
to track how often and where
instrument trays were used.
Our large hospital system is
outfitted with instrument track-
ing software, which lets us pin-
point the location of individual instrument trays in seconds, capture
accurate case cost information, improve the management of our instru-
ment inventory and know for certain the specific cases they were used
in and the individual patients they were used on. At least in theory.
Drilling down to the problem
We didn't realize our hospital wasn't realizing the full benefit of its
instrument tracking technology until we had to trace an orthopedic drill
back to the cases in which it was used. The instrument tracking soft-
Do You Know Where Your Instruments Are?
Tracking software provides the data needed to improve
clinical efficiencies and patient care.
• TARGETED USE The team at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital can
link individual instrument trays to specific patients and procedures.
Jon
Kraft,
BSN,
RN,
CNOR
Jon Kraft, BSN, RN, CNOR | Nashville, Tenn.
