Radio tags make it harder to leave stuff behind

This article reminded me of one the funniest moments of the TV show Seinfeld (well, to me), when Kramer drops a junior mint into the open cavity of a patient as he's being sowed up by the surgeons.

But learning that stuff's been left behind after a patient's been sewn up isn't funny. It happens to 1,500 American patients every year, according to the AP article "E-Tags Could Prevent Surgical Errors," and the rate of this happening is 1 in every 10,000 surgeries. Not high odds, but this error is something that almost always leads to costly complications, and often death.

The article centers on a new idea being commercialized: surgical sponges implanted with RFID tags (you know, the tags that allow drivers to fly through toll booths without pressing on the brakes and that allow people to enter, or be blocked by, security-enabled doors).

According to company officials, surgeons or nurses could wave wands over patients near the end of their operations and detect any leftover sponges still in the body. According to a newly released study, none of eight patients had any problems when tagged sponges were briefly placed into their bodies during operations.

"Our study found the device works 100 percent of the time," said lead author Dr. Alex Macario, professor of anesthesia at Stanford University, in Stanford, Calif.

It's neat to find out a healthcare worker came up with the idea. "According to Macario, an operating-room nurse came up with the idea of RFID-tagged sponges and patented the idea."

Since the RFID is a controversial device, there was bound to be controversy. Katherine Albrecht, co-author of Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFIDs, "said surgeons would pass the costs of the system on to patients. 'They're just shifting the cost to the consumer or the HMO,' she said."

She also questioned why the system relies on RFID chips, which can provide an identification code. Cheaper devices -- like the theft-prevention devices placed on clothes in a department store -- would work just as well, she said.

She's got a point: why pay more if cheaper devices do the same thing? The CEO of ClearCount Medical Solutions, the company commercializing the idea, maintains it's important to know how many sponges were left behind, and what kinds of sponges were they.

What's clear is that these e-tagged sponges would benefit patients and taxpayers. They would also help surgeons avoid being sued and losing patients, which is why -- according to the study (being run in the July Archives of Surgery) -- surgeons would be "willing to pay an average of $144 per [e-tagged sponge]."