By Lidia Chelkowska, BSN, RN, and Jessica Everitt, analysts with MD Buyline
The recent meeting of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) in Boston placed a great focus on safety, equipment, and technology.
Surgical smoke evacuation
Surgical smoke evacuation is a movement that is finally receiving long overdue acknowledgment. The chemicals, viruses, blood, and particulates transferred from surgical smoke pose harmful effects to both the surgical staff and to the patient.
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There are four documented cases where surgical staff contracted HPV from smoke, and there are numerous reports of respiratory illnesses caused from high exposure. For the patient, (undergoing laparoscopy) smoke migrates through the peritoneal membrane and decreases the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells. For a young, healthy patient this doesn’t pose a large risk, but in a critical case, this can be catastrophic, and it alters the readings on the pulse oximeter for the anesthesiologist.
AORN has developed a “Go Clear” program, with guidelines on how to implement a smoke evacuation protocol in hospitals. Components include a pre-test, gap analysis, education, monitoring, and a post-test, to lead participants through this program. Electrosurgical and waste management devices are making smoke evacuation more of a primary focus. With a combination of education and the right technology, smoke evacuation can become a seamless part of the everyday operating room.
Remote equipment diagnostics
Remote equipment diagnosis is becoming an integral part of the service plan for equipment. All types of surgical equipment — from integrated operating room interface to orthopedic drills, saws, and handpieces — are beginning to communicate to the vendor to deliver information regarding software update notifications and service diagnostics. This allows the hospital’s surgical equipment to perform optimally. It also helps vendors by enabling them to remotely correct service issues or to be prepared to correct the problem when sending out a service technician.
Some equipment is even including a hospital-facing dashboard that displays the health of the equipment and indicates when it requires servicing. This should effectively eradicate equipment failure in the surgical suite. The overarching goal of remote diagnosing is to be able to decrease the downtime in the surgery suite, improving the hospital’s overall efficiency.
