Cheap compared to the alternative...get those RFIDs in place...at $12 to $15.00 a procedure the cost is reasonable...less than what you get charged for a box of tissue with your hospital bill..and the joint commission likes the idea too...BD 

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Admitted to a Macon, Ga., hospital in 2004 for surgery for diverticulitis of the colon, Lucille Davis, then 67, left with an undetected and dangerous souvenir: a surgical sponge. Last month the error resulted in a $10 million settlement.
The problem of left-behind sponges is hardly new. A 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that sponges and other foreign objects were left behind after abdominal surgeries at a rate of 1 for every 1,000 to 1,500 such operations.
Several medical-products companies say sponges are the most common foreign objects left behind in surgeries.

Medline says RF-Detect, developed with its partner, Bellevue, Wash.-based RF Surgical Systems Inc., adds $50 to $60 per thoracic procedure. For comparison, having to crack back into a patient's chest cavity to retrieve a sponge and treat an infection caused by a foreign object can cost $50,000 or more.

Medline says RF-Detect is gaining momentum. Although just 21 hospitals have committed to the new system, the company said an additional 38 hospitals have scheduled a trial over the next two months. RF Detect was launched in certain regions of the U.S. last spring and a national rollout is planned for early this year, Medline officials said.

Technology cuts risk of surgical sponges -- chicagotribune.com

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