B
odily fluid over-
flow is common
during notoriously
messy joint proce-
dures. Your staff
can stem the tide by attempting
to sop it up, but closed mobile
collection units are the no muss,
no fuss solution to keeping OR
floors dry. In my mind they're no-
brainers for busy orthopedic cen-
ters. Here's why.
• Major time-savings. Our old
fluid-collection method involved
four canisters on a wheeled surgi-
cal tree. We had to put a solidifier
in full canisters, which exposed
staff to biohazardous spillage and
splashback. Nurses or techs then
had to carry filled 3-liter canisters
to a dirty utility room to dispose
of the fluid waste, putting them at
risk of injury from the repeated
heavy lifting.
Our facility purchased 11
mobile fluid waste collection sys-
tems last year — one for each
operating and procedure room.
Mobile systems can be rolled into
and out of the OR and positioned
in a variety of ways that makes it
easy to collect fluid without
obstructing staff during surgery.
For fluid-producing arthroscopy
cases, the transition meant we went from lugging
and bagging heavy fluid-filled canisters throughout
the facility to rolling one of the new devices to a
docking station.
The old process was as time-consuming as it
was aggravating. You had to double-bag the canis-
ters and take them to the utility room after each
procedure. The larger reservoirs in the mobile
units make it extremely rare for us to have to
empty the system after each case, even during
procedures that produce high volumes of fluid.
Even if you bagged the canisters as you went
during the procedure, you weren't able to fully
concentrate on the case, which led to other ineffi-
ciencies. We're definitely able to schedule more
cases because we've reduced our turnover times
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T • 2 7
Caryn Solomon, MA, BSN, RN | Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
A Better Way to Handle Fluid Waste
Closed disposal systems make ORs safer, greener and more efficient.
ON THE MOVE Mobile fluid collection systems are nimble enough to stay out of the OR team's way, which makes
them real staff satisfiers.
