Zero Harm-Retained Surgical Items
St. Mark's Hospital
1200 East 3900 South
Millcreek, UT 84124
Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 6:00pm MT - 8:00pm MT
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Info
Topic
RSI prevention
Additional Information
Operating rooms are hectic by nature. Staff workload is high and interruptions are incessant. The manual sponge counting process is cumbersome.
Distraction, multi-tasking, and time pressure can result in discrepant or false correct counts, eventually leading a retained surgical sponge.

It's estimated that 11 patients every day are sutured up with a surgical sponge still inside them.1

It can take 10 or more minutes to find a missing sponge.2

False correct counts are the cause of 62-88% of RSS.3

Surgical sponges are the #1 retained surgical item.4