The Bar Coded Sponge Study

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Healthy

In brief

The purpose of this study is to test whether bar coded surgical sponges can significantly increase the safety of operations, specifically by (1) reducing discrepancies and miscounts, (2) reducing total staff time spent on sponge counting, and (3) reducing disruptions to the operating room as a system. Also, the study aims to further characterize the limitations of the current surgical sponge counting protocol.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00282750

Run by

Brigham and Women's Hospital

People needed

350

Starts

2006-03-01

Expected to finish

2006-08-01

Last updated by the study team

2010-01-14

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Patients undergoing a scheduled general surgery (or subspecialty of general surgery) procedure in the general surgery operating room of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, during the study period are eligible for enrollment in the study.
• Start times for eligible cases must be between 7AM and 3PM on a weekday.

You may not qualify if…

• Patients in the pre-op area who have already received pre-op sedation and have not yet been consented
• Patients who are undergoing a procedure by a specialty other than general surgery
• Patients whose procedure is being performed by a team whose members are not all trained to use the Bar Coded Sponge System
• After hours, weekend, add-on, or emergency cases
• Pregnant women
• Patients whose consent needs to be obtained through a surrogate

Where it is running

• Brigham and Women's Hospital — Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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