Quote:
Originally Posted by swatsurgeon
I generally will hold one of the sponges in my hand...hiding it if you will so that the counts are off by 1 sponge...this accomplishes 2 very important things:
1. if the nurses tell me the count is off by 1, they're correct and that is a great thing and I give back the hidden sponge.
2. if the nurses tell me the counts are correct, we have a huge problem and we then do either re-explore the patient or x-ray the part of the body we were operating on....I STILL HAVE THE HIDDEN SPONGE!! so the count CAN'T be correct.
ss
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Great plan, until the scrub or the circ nurse remembers about your penchant and starts factoring that in <g>.
One of the hospitals we rotate at takes post-op Xrays of EVERY patient. But... no one reviews the xray before the patient leaves the OR... so in the unlikely event that a radiologist catches a needle or sponge in the belly (and needles are pretty damn tiny on those plain films) a day or so later... what do you do? Take the patient back for a routine re-exploration? Tell the patient about it so if it ever causes him problems he can be re-explored (boy, we could discuss the pros & cons of THAT one for a week without even involving the legal aspects)?