Patent ID: 7774244

Claim:
A system for tracking surgical items comprising: a sensor capable of reading RFID tags associated therewith; a computing device in communication with the sensor; a database in communication with the computing device; and an output device, wherein the computing device performs the following functions based on information received from the sensor and the database: confirming a type of surgical procedure to be performed on a patient's body; comparing surgical procedure type information stored on an RFID tag associated with the patient's body to surgical procedure type information stored in the database; determining an allowable zone in the patient's body that corresponds to the type of surgical procedure to be performed; determining whether the plurality of surgical items include a predetermined set of surgical items associated with the type of surgical procedure to be performed; detecting movement of a surgical item outside the allowable zone in the patient's body; and triggering an alarm to indicate the surgical item is moving towards a zone in the patient's body in which the surgical item may not be used; and wherein the output device produces the alarm if the surgical type information stored in the RFID tag associated with the patient's body does not match the surgical procedure type information stored in the database.