Tsutomu Sawa

Shimane university hospital implements RFID technology to manage surgical instruments

Every surgical instrument used during surgery must be accounted to ensure that none of these devices is left inside the patient. This paper presents SIMSAFE (Surgical InstruMents SAFEty system), an automated system for surgical instrument that increases the safety of surgical procedure. Shimane University Hospital installs this system and demonstrates that the system can trace and track every instrument with minimum additional effort to dairy operation. With SIMSAFE system, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is used to detect and find the location of the individual surgical instrument. In addition to the original purpose of securing the safety of health care, improving the efficiency of work and reduction of responsibility for the work of the worker has been obtained.