Patent ID: 7795491
Filing Date: 2010-09-14
Classification: A61F,G06Q,G16H,Y02W

Abstract:
1. A method for accounting for gauze surgical articles used in a surgical procedure, said method comprising: providing a plurality of the gauze articles each displaying machine-readable information and having a characteristic visual motif in addition to the machine-readable information, wherein the characteristic visual motif of some but not all of the articles will differ from the characteristic visual motif of others of the articles and wherein said machine-readable information on each article includes both (1) data uniquely identifying that article so that it may be distinguished from all other articles used in the procedure, and (2) data identifying the visual motif of the article wherein the characteristic visual motif comprises at least one of color of at least a portion of the article, a pattern on at least a portion of the article, a color on at least a portion of a label, and a pattern on at least a portion of the label; before the procedure begins, scanning into a computer the machine-readable information of each of the gauze surgical articles available to be used in the procedure to produce a list of gauze surgical articles available to be used; introducing at least some of the gauze surgical articles available to be used to an operative site in a patient; after the procedure ends, removing the gauze surgical articles from the operative site to produce a collection of removed gauze surgical articles; scanning into the computer the machine-readable information of each of the gauze surgical articles removed from the patient and each of the gauze surgical articles not used in the procedure to produce a list of gauze surgical articles not used and removed; wherein the computer: compares (1) the list of gauze surgical articles not used and removed with (2) the list of gauze surgical articles available to be used to identify unaccounted gauze surgical articles; and displays the characteristic visual motif(s) for each of the unaccounted gauze surgical articles, wherein a user can visually distinguish each unaccounted gauze surgical article from other gauze surgical articles in the collection based on the characteristic visual motif; said method further comprising rescanning only those removed gauze surgical articles having the displayed characteristic visual motif(s).