Patent ID: 7703674
Filing Date: 2010-04-27
Classification: A61F,G06Q,G16H,Y02W

Abstract:
1. A method for accounting for surgical articles used in a surgical procedure, said method comprising: providing a package which contains a plurality of individual surgical articles, wherein each individual surgical article comprises machine readable information which uniquely distinguishes that article from all other articles in the package and wherein the package comprises machine readable information which includes the information of each individual article; prior to the surgical procedure, scanning the machine readable information on the package with a scanner that provides the unique identification information from each individual surgical article to a computer to produce a list of surgical articles available for use in the procedure; using at least some of the individual surgical articles from the package in the surgical procedure where others of the unique surgical articles may not be used; after the surgical procedure, collecting the surgical articles which have been used in the procedure, scanning the machine readable information on the individual surgical articles which have been used in the procedure and the machine readable information on the articles from the package that were not used in the procedure with a scanner into the computer to produce a list of articles accounted for after the procedure; and comparing the list of articles available for use with the list of articles accounted for to determine if there are any unaccounted articles.