RFID Solution Of Medical Surgeries:

The RFID solution would be to tag all such objects with RFID tags. They would be of different types, as the tags used for steel objects like scalpels and tweezers, would be different than for towels. However, the bottomline is, that all of these objects can be tagged. A “smart” surgical holder, is similar to a trolley having a lot of open shelves having multiple trays holds all of these objects.

This smart trolley has an RFID reader which remembers all the objects that were on it. After the surgery is over, the staff replaces all the stuff back on the smart trolley. In case, the number of objects is less than what the smart trolley had before coming into the operation theatre, it gives out an alarm, indicating that some towel or gauze is not put back. It may have been left inside! Once all items are reloaded back onto the trolley, it leaves the operation theatre to another department for cleaning and replenishment. After cleaning, the trolley is again loaded with a set number and type of items necessary and sent back to the operation theatre.

Present Scenario Of Medical Surgeries:

In a typical surgery today, a large number of objects like scalpels, tweezers, tongs and other implements, gauze pieces, towels, etc are used. The number of implements and objects used increases, for complicated or larger duration surgeries, which have more than one surgeon and assisting staff. Common error which can lead to serious post operative complications, is for something to remain inside the patient after the operation is over. These conditions are not very rare, they do occur often. In most cases, these objects are discovered only after the patient complains or is scanned by ultrasound for some other problems.To avoid this, there has to be a tracking system, to check which implements were brought inside the operation theatre, number of towels or gauzes used,etc.

Advantages Of RFID Solution:

• There is no room for human error. Implementing the system means that the patient can be confident that nothing will be left inside his body after the surgery.
• The doctors and paramedical staff have one thing less to worry about. The smart shelf take care of it.

Future Scenarios Of Medical Surgeries

The system will get adopted at the large hospitals soon. It may also be forced on to the hospitals by the government or the Medical Insurance companies, who realize the advantages of having such a system in place.