Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Manager's Guide to Staff & Patient Safety - October 2015

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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O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T 5 9 meetings were the perfect platform to discuss safety sharps and to lay the foundation for buy-in. 3. Pick the products to trial We approved 3 safety products to trial, each from the same vendor. • Disposable safety scalpel handle. This is an ingenious product that lets you place any size blade on a weighted disposable handle. The fact that the handle is weighted is no small detail. Surgeons will quickly reject an otherwise satisfacto- ry safety scalpel if the plastic handle is too light. It doesn't feel right in my hands, they'll say. Too flimsy. A safety guard slides over top of the blade and locks into place via a hooking mechanism, protecting the entire blade, regard- less of the size. This safety scalpel makes it safe to hand-pass the device back and forth with the surgeon. Surgeons want to make the incision at once as soon as we hand them the scalpel, so they're going to have to learn to take one more step — that takes less than a second — to slide the safety guard back and forth to activate and deactivate the guard. If you anticipate that your surgeons will balk at having to activate the safety device, ask them if it's worth it to prevent a life-changing injury. At an earlier stop in my career, we trialed a disposable knife handle and blade. Our surgeons complained that the handle was too light and the cover that went over the blade prevented them from making an incision and pushing the blade deep enough to separate the tissue. This time, we think we've found the answer: a weighted handle that can accommodate any blade, and a cover that goes over the blade. • Hypodermic needle. We're going to trial a needle that has a safety guard as well. I'm concerned that our surgeons may resist this product. The safety guard on z DANGER ZONE With scalpels, needles and other sharp instruments, the OR is a hazardous area. Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN

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