Safety Sponge System Implemented at University of Michigan Health System

SurgiCount Medical, the wholly-owned operating subsidiary of Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. announces the successful implementation of the Safety-Sponge® System at the University of Michigan Health System located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Safety-Sponge® System is a proven solution to prevent one of the most common surgical errors, retained surgical sponges.

Since the founding of the University of Michigan Medical School in 1848, the academic medical center, now known as the U-M Health System, has been recognized as a leading innovator and health care provider in Michigan, nationally, and worldwide.  It is consistently ranked among the nation's best by U.S. News and World Report, currently a member of the 2010-2011 Honor Roll, the only hospital in Michigan to make this list for 15 consecutive years and is also recognized for excellence in 15 specialty care areas.  With nearly 900 beds across three hospitals, U-M Health System has more than 43,000 patient admissions, and performs more than 45,000 surgical procedures on inpatients and outpatients across a broad range of specialties.

We look forward to supporting them in their ongoing effort to deliver excellence in patient care," says Brian E. Stewart, president and CEO of Patient Safety Technologies.  "We are proud to include the University of Michigan Health System to the growing list of users of the Safety-Sponge® System and believe adding an institution of this caliber further validates the benefits and advantages of the solution.

"The SurgiCount technology provides the protection of identifying and counting each sponge used during a surgical procedure and also helps to support a standard practice for counting sponges that improves our ability to deliver safer care for our patients."   "We have implemented the SurgiCount System to provide an added safety mechanism to the long-established practice of a manual sponge-counting process in our operating rooms," says Shawn Murphy MS, RN, operating room director for UMHS.