Stryker’s touch-screen tablet drops for SurgiCount safety sponge

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) said today that it’s releasing a touch-screen table for its SurgiCount safety sponge, which is designed to prevent the “never event” of retained surgical items.

The SurgiCount system’s sponges and towels use unique identifiers so that healthcare providers can track them throughout a procedure, in real time; the system’s software creates a permanent record of each verified count. Stryker paid $120 million for Patient Safety Technologies, which developed the system, in March 2014.

The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based company said the new 10-inch tablet allows for real-time, fully encrypted data transfer via WiFi to secure servers in the cloud.

“We’ve taken our SurgiCount safety-sponge system to the next level with the SurgiCount tablet,” surgical safety director Nate Miersma said in prepared remarks. “The new interface offers expanded capabilities that make it even easier to keep track of each individual sponge or towel used in a surgery and dramatically reduce the risk of a retained sponge.”

Stryker said 69% of RSIs, the most-reported never event, are retained surgical sponges; it’s estimated that there are some 11 U.S. incidents a day involving retained sponges, for an annual cost of $2.4 billion.

The SurgiCount system, in use in more than 530 U.S. hospitals, has never failed to ID a retained sponge in an estimated 11 million procedures involving 200 million sponges over 5 years, the company said.

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