Retained Surgical Items

Foreign bodies that are unintentionally left in patients after surgery can cause harm to surgical patients. Proactive risk strategies are required to prevent and reduce the occurrence of unintended retained surgical items (RSI) events for every patient undergoing an operative or other invasive procedure.

Ambulatory Supplement

• Sample - Resolving a Count Discrepancy in the Free Standing Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC)

Professional Organizations

• American College of Surgeons: ST-51 Statement on the prevention of retained foreign bodies after surgery
• American Society for Healthcare Risk Management: Healthcare Risk Management Solutions for Top Reported Sentinel Events, Tip 4: Count to Protect Against Foreign Bodies Left In Patients After Surgery
• Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN): Recommended practices for prevention of retained surgical items
• Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert 51
• Massachusetts Coalition for Prevention of Medical Errors
• NoThing Left Behind®: A National Surgical Patient-Safety Project to Prevent Retained Surgical Items
• Society of Interventional Radiology Position Statement: Prevention of Unintentionally Retained Foreign Bodies during Interventional Radiology (PDF)
• The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Committee Opinion Patient Safety in the Surgical Environment

Resources

• AORN News: Why effective nursing communication is everything is today’s health care environment (May 2013)
• Evaluating Adjunct Technology
  
  • Sample- Simulation Scenario
• Resources -Retained Surgical Items
• Resources -Surgical Trigger
• Sample-Policy Counts: Sharps and Miscellaneous Items
• Sample-Policy Counts: Sponges

Proactive Risk Analysis Tools

• Sample - Healthcare Failure Mode Effect Analysis for Surgical Sponges

Sentinel Events: Prevention and Reduction of Retained Surgical Items (RSI) Events

Objectives

• Review the evidence-based recommendations to prevent and reduce the incidence of unintended retained surgical items events.
• Discuss steps of a sample proactive risk analysis.
• State steps of a sample root cause analysis.
• Compare a sample root cause analysis and a sample healthcare failure mode effect analysis.

Components

• Faculty Disclosure

Webinars

• Conducting a Proactive Risk Analysis (View PowerPoint Presentation)
  • Best Practices for Prevention of Retained Surgical Items (View PowerPoint Presentation)

US Federal Agency Websites

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Evidence-based Guidelines for Selected and Previously Considered Hospital-Acquired Conditions

Copyright

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NOTICE:
No responsibility is assumed by AORN, Inc. for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any standards, recommended practices, methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the health care sciences in particular, independent verification of diagnoses, medication dosages, and individualized care and treatment should be made. The material contained herein is not intended to be a substitute for the exercise of professional medical or nursing judgment The content in this publication is provided on an as is basis.

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