The Case of the Missing Probe
Nurses pocket things for safe keeping, not to steal and sell.
E
quipment and supplies
in the operating room
come up missing all
the time. It's beyond me how
that happens. Oh, I know
small things like suture, dress-
ings and instruments are easy
to store in your pockets until
you get a moment to return
them to their proper place.
That might not happen until the next day if, like me, you're halfway
undressed in the changing room when you notice the items are still
crammed in your pockets. So into the locker the items go until you
can return them the next day.
Sometimes, instruments, cords, tips, hardware and expensive sup-
plies somehow end up in the trash or the laundry bags. Some facilities
wand the bags to check for concealed metal objects before pitching
them down the chute. Should you find one, there's no dignified way to
dumpster dive to fish out the missing items.
Criminal minds
Please tell me how equipment bigger than a breadbox and not on a
sterile field can come up MIA? The circulator can't be stashing or
tossing items that big in the locker or the trash. So, where are these
items going?
I heard from one of my sources that a $10,000 neoprobe gamma
detection system at her hospital had come up missing. Gamma probes
are used primarily for sentinel lymph node mapping and parathyroid
1 3 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 1 7
Behind Closed Doors
Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR
• LOST AND FOUND Items stashed in pockets eventually find their way back to the supply room.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN