Reducing retained foreign objects in the operating room: a quality improvement initiative.

Olivia A Keane; Cindi Chambers; Colin M Brady; Jeff Rehberg; Srikant Iyer; Matthew T Santore

Study

Reducing retained foreign objects in the operating room: a quality improvement initiative.

December 20, 2023

Keane OA, Chambers C, Brady CM, et al. J Am Coll Surg. 2023;237(6):864-872.

View more articles from the same authors.

Retained foreign objects (RFO) following surgery are a never event and largely preventable. Following a decrease in days between RFO, this healthcare system implemented a quality improvement initiative across all pediatric surgical centers to reduce RFO events. Following several cycles of plan-do-study-act, days between RFO events increased from 29 to 451 days and that number of days was sustained at one year.

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Retained Surgical Instruments and Sponges

Reducing retained foreign objects in the operating room: a quality improvement initiative.

Retained Surgical Items: Definition and Epidemiology.

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