Patent ID: 9721064
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: A61B,A61M,G16H,G16Z

Claim:
1. A method for preventing wrong-site surgery and tracking near-miss events as a patient progresses through a surgical procedure environment including a surgeon office, hospital admissions, hospital pre-operative holding area, and an operating room, the method comprising: identifying a patient in need of a surgical procedure; creating an electronic patient profile of said patient for use in tracking said patient through said surgical procedure environment, said electronic patient profile including surgical procedure information, patient information, and surgeon information; associating said electronic patient profile with a container equipped with a machine-readable code containing a unique container identification number and a laterality code, wherein said container includes a surgical instrument for use in said surgical procedure and wherein said electronic patient profile is updated to include said unique container identification number and said laterality code after said electronic patient profile has been associated with said container, said surgical container; delivering said container to said patient in said hospital pre-operative holding area and tracking said container as said patient progresses through a remainder of said surgical procedure environment; assessing said electronic patient profile at multiple temporally spaced events within said surgical procedure environment as said patient progresses through said surgical procedure environment to confirm that said electronic patient profile matches with an intended surgical procedure associated with a correct diagnosis of said patient, said intended surgical procedure including a correct patient, a correct procedure, a correct surgical site, and a correct laterality, or does not match with said intended surgical procedure, wherein assessing includes an inspection by a medical team member as to whether said patient information and said surgical procedure information matches said intended surgical procedure and, after said container is delivered to said patient, also includes an electronic scan of said machine-readable code on said container to electronically assess whether said surgical procedure information and said patient information matches said intended surgical procedure, wherein: accessing said container if, during a final assessment of said electronic patient profile in said operating room, it is determined that said electronic patient profile matches said intended surgical procedure such that a surgeon may use said surgical instrument to start said surgical procedure.