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Did Skin Prep Fuel This Fire? - February 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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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tions to the surgical department manager, a safety officer or facility administrator, who can conduct formal coaching or require staff mem- bers to complete online sharps safety-training modules. The point is to learn from the real-time observations of your team's sharps-handling practices and use the opportunities to improve your safety efforts. Our audits revealed surgeons often retracted anatomy manually during open procedures instead of using instruments designed to do the job. That practice put their hands in harm's way and increased their risk of getting stuck. It took a great deal of coach- ing and reminders to change that dangerous habit. OSM Ms. Gilligan (marypat_gilligan@trihealth.com) is the director of perioper- ative services at TriHealth's Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Safety S 2 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 Use this checklist before proce- dures begin to ensure sharps are properly managed during surgery. • Is the surgeon right- or left- handed? • Is the neutral zone selected and identified? • Are safety scalpels available? • Are appropriate retractors available? • Have unnecessary sharps been eliminated from the field? • Are team members aware of the sharps to be used during the case? • Will team members commu- nicate about the location of sharps? • Are alternative wound closure devices such as blunt-tip sutures available? Source: AORN Sharps Safety Toolkit (osmag.net/tfhyt5) PRE-OP PRECAUTION One Last Check on Sharps Safety

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