Singapore hospital tags surgical equipment
Fresh on the heels of St. Mary’s Medical Center, the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) in Singapore has begun tagging swabs and gauzes with RFID microchips to ensure that none are left inside a patient post-surgery.
Under the system, all dressings brought into surgery are affixed with RFID tags. Before sewing a patient up, a reader is passed over the patient to detect any errant items.
The system, developed by O’Connors Singapore on a $330,000 government grant, is currently undergoing a month long test at KKH and its hospital-wide adoption is contingent on the success of the pilot.
Singapore’s National University Hospital has also received a grant to pilot a similar system.
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