Surgical smart table · Patient Safety Technology Challenge
Fewer sponges are left behind, but more tools are.
URFO, short for unintended retention of a foreign object, means a sponge, tool or needle is left inside a patient after surgery. It can lead to infection, sepsis, another operation, or death. To prevent it, nurses count every item by hand before the patient is closed.
Counts still rest on people's memory and attention, and nothing keeps track of the tools.
→ So we designed a back table that counts the tools itself, and the staff only check its count.
The table counts every tool laid on it.
I designed the back table, where the scrub nurse lays out every tool. Each tool carries a small tag, and a reader under the top counts it the moment it's put down. The table's screens show that count all through the surgery.
The screens show where every tool is, at every count.
My teammate and I worked out the counting flow together. The main screen walks the team through five steps. Beside it, one widget per tool compares how many are on the back table, on the Mayo stand and in the dirty area with how many there should be.
Every tool has its own widget. It adds up how many are on the back table, on the Mayo stand and in the dirty area, and compares that with how many there should be.
Every control is a single tap, with no long press or drag, because the team wears gloves.