Operating Room

Infection Control Today spoke with Mary J. Ogg, MSN, RN, CNOR, a perioperative nursing specialist with the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), regarding sharps safety-related issues in the operating room.

Healthcare encompasses an enormous range of supplies, equipment and instruments, ranging from drug-delivery products to wound management supplies, textiles, procedure and surgical supplies, and innumerable infection prevention and control-related supplies. Well-informed product evaluation and purchasing is a significant way for hospitals to combat rising expenses in an environment of moderate reimbursements, according to Hoeksema (2011), who emphasizes that perioperative nurses play a key role in evaluating product safety, effectiveness and efficiency, environmental concerns, and cost and how these factors affect patient care.

After a surgeon stitches up a patient's abdomen, costly complications -- some life-threatening -- can occur. To cut down on these postoperative problems, Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a disposable suturing tool to guide the placement of stitches and guard against the accidental puncture of internal organs.