January 2009
ClearCount Medical Solutions, an innovator of patient safety solutions for the operating room, announced today that its SmartSponge System received a finalist award under the Medical and Scientific category of the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEAs).
The award was submitted in conjunction with product development consultancy Bright Innovation.
The SmartSponge System is the first and only system to build the highest level of accuracy into both counting and detection of surgical sponges.
Individual sponge validation and continuous monitoring allows the system to both count and detect surgical sponges, improving safety, efficiency, and overall operating room performance.
IDEA is the premier international competition honoring design excellence in products, ecodesign, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts.
The competition, sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Businessweek, selected 389 finalists out of 1,517 entries from 26 countries.
"Patient safety continues to be a top concern for hospitals and hospital providers," said David Palmer, ClearCount's President & CEO.
"This award is recognition of ClearCount's excellence in designing innovative technology that improves both patient safety and productivity in the operating room."
Hospitals today have more incentive than ever to find affordable solutions toward improving patient safety and efficiency.
As evidence of this trend, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and a number of private insurers no longer reimburse hospitals for procedures associated with "never" events such as left-behind surgical sponges.
A 2008 Annals of Surgery study reported that one in 8 surgical cases involves an intraoperative count discrepancy, taking an average of 13 minutes to resolve, which adds to costly operating room time.
The SmartSponge System helps to improve patient safety while strengthening operating room efficiency.
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