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CNOR, service line manager for Southcoast Hospitals Group in Fall River, Mass.
Hard data may also be the route to physicians' practices. "Numbers — injury reports — are the best way to persuade surgeons to try safer products," says Richard Gammill, RN, OR manager at the Rockwall (Texas) Surgery Center. "You can ask them to try a new product, but without evidence for the reason, it's hard to get them to switch."
That's not to say that a trial isn't effective, especially if you include high-quality products whose feel and handling resemble those of traditional scalpels. "Hands-on evaluation is all that will get them into the hands of our surgeons," says Vickie Schultheiss, MT, ASCP, medical administrator at Harford Lower Extremity Specialists in Bel Air, Md.
If a transition to sharps safety is your goal, make it a policy, then make it the only choice,
either gradually or by tough love. "Introduce them more often in cases, so surgeons get used to using them," says Larry S. Goldstein, DPM, medical director of the Surgical Centers of Georgia in Macon. More directly, "Remove all non-safety scalpels from the trays and don't offer a choice," says David Wilkerson, RN, director of surgical services at Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin, Tenn., "unless it's detrimental to the outcome of the case or a
