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WRISTBANDS CONFIRM KEY PATIENT INFORMATION

App helps eliminate wrong-site surgeries

Every year, wrong-site surgeries — those performed on the wrong site or side of the body — occur despite precautions, checklists, numerous protocols, and educational programs. While these errors occur infrequently in ophthalmology,¹ few medical errors are as terrifying as those that involve surgery on the wrong body part, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.² To help prevent these errors, a Brooksville, FL practice uses an app that relies on graphics rather than text.

Eyecare Centers of Florida’s “Sight of Surgery Assistance” app generates a wristband for each patient that includes surgical site, name, and photo.COURTESY EYECARE CENTERS OF FLORIDA

Developed by Srin Dutt, MD, of Eyecare Centers of Florida, the “Site of Surgery Assistant” app, available at the Apple Store for iPad or iPhone, produces a pictorial marker that represents the anatomical surgery site. Marking the area of surgery, this graphic is printed on a wristband worn by the patient at the time of surgery. The graphic is also printed on stickers that can be placed on the patient or in the patient’s chart.

“Visual, graphical processing is faster and more accurate than text or verbal communication,” says Kristen Sims, Eyecare Centers of Florida. She adds that the pictorial marker helps minimize human error, provides redundancy to checklists and chart review, provides a standardized technique, and simplifies the communication process. Now used in an outpatient surgery center, the app “is proving to be helpful to physicians, OR techs, pre-op nurses, and patients,” she says.

How the app works

At the time when the surgeon and patient agree on the surgical procedure, the surgeon or a staff member selects a picture of the surgical site on the app and marks the appropriate location. Both the surgeon and the patient then provide their approval by signing off. The app generates the wristband, which can be printed on any color printer with AirPrint capability. At check-in for the surgery, the patient photo and data on the wristband are reviewed, and, once confirmed, it is placed on the patient’s wrist. The app does not save patient information, so HIPAA privacy issues are avoided.

Ms. Sims sees expanded uses for the app. “To further improve communication between patients and healthcare providers, we are working to extend this pictorial system to the entire informed consent process,” she says. OP

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