{
  "url": "https://proudtek.com/blog/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention/",
  "sourceUrl": "https://proudtek.com/blog/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention/",
  "title": "Case Study: Zero Retained Sponges with RFID",
  "description": "A 380-bed regional hospital deployed RFID-tagged surgical sponges across 14 operating rooms and 2 trauma bays in 9 months. They achieved zero retained...",
  "kind": "article",
  "imageUrl": "https://proudtek.com/blog-images/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention.jpg",
  "imageAlt": "Team of surgeons operating in a well-equipped operating room — the procedure environment where RFID sponge tracking prevented retained surgical items.",
  "imageGallery": [
    {
      "url": "https://proudtek.com/blog-images/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention.jpg",
      "alt": "Team of surgeons operating in a well-equipped operating room — the procedure environment where RFID sponge tracking prevented retained surgical items."
    }
  ],
  "breadcrumbs": [
    {
      "name": "Home",
      "url": "https://proudtek.com/"
    },
    {
      "name": "Blog",
      "url": "https://proudtek.com/blog/"
    },
    {
      "name": "Case Study: Zero Retained Sponges with RFID",
      "url": "https://proudtek.com/blog/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention/"
    }
  ],
  "summary": [
    "A 380-bed regional hospital deployed RFID-tagged surgical sponges across 14 operating rooms and 2 trauma bays in 9 months."
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "question": "Was the +90 seconds per case acceptable to surgeons?",
      "answer": "Most adapted within 2 weeks. The customer measured turnover time (TOT) before and after — net change was +30 seconds because some manual recount steps were eliminated, not the full 90."
    },
    {
      "question": "How did this integrate with the existing Stryker SurgiCount system?",
      "answer": "Stryker SurgiCount remained for non-tagged items (instruments, needles); tagged sponges flowed through both the wand and SurgiCount workflows with redundant logging."
    },
    {
      "question": "What's the per-case consumable cost?",
      "answer": "+$8.40 average. The customer absorbs this in OR overhead rather than charging separately, reasoning that RSS-prevention cost should not be patient-billable."
    },
    {
      "question": "Could a smaller hospital with 4–6 ORs justify this?",
      "answer": "Yes — but capex per OR is similar regardless of count, so per-OR cost lands closer to $35K. Smaller hospitals usually justify on single-event avoidance over 5 years, especially when modelled against the ~$166K average direct cost the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority associates with each RSI event (cited by STERIS in their 2023 RSI prevention writeup)."
    },
    {
      "question": "How does this case study compare to STERIS ORLocate or Stryker SurgiCount as standalone systems?",
      "answer": "The customer effectively layered the RFID wand on top of SurgiCount rather than replacing it; the same approach is workable with STERIS ORLocate (which publishes a 19-inch in-vivo locator range and handheld counter at ~6 inches for HF RFID-tagged gauze in 77+ SKUs). The decisive factor in most RFP decisions is sponge SKU coverage — surgeons want their preferred sponge sizes available in tagged form before they will sign off on the workflow change. The customer ran a 6-week tagged-sponge SKU pilot before the wider rollout for that reason."
    },
    {
      "question": "How long until the next Joint Commission survey saw the documentation findings drop?",
      "answer": "The next survey was at month 11 post-go-live (the customer is on a triennial cycle with interim focus visits). Findings dropped from 14 → 2 in that visit. The two remaining findings were unrelated to surgical counts: one was instrument-tray content variance and one was sterile-storage shelving height. AORN's RSI guideline language and the Joint Commission's Sentinel Event Alert #51 (Preventing unintended retained foreign objects) were the primary references cited in the closeout report."
    }
  ],
  "procurementFields": [],
  "collectionGuidanceFields": [],
  "coreGuidanceFields": [],
  "articleGuidanceFields": [
    {
      "label": "Best for",
      "value": "Case Study: Zero Retained Sponges with RFID supports RFID and NFC evaluation, comparison, and sourcing decisions."
    },
    {
      "label": "Compare first",
      "value": "Compare Case Study: Zero Retained Sponges with RFID against reader compatibility, chip family, material, and deployment environment."
    },
    {
      "label": "What to confirm",
      "value": "Confirm target application, compatibility requirements, customization needs, quantity, and sample expectations before quoting Case Study: Zero Retained Sponges with RFID."
    }
  ],
  "sourceLinks": [],
  "related": [],
  "productSpecs": [],
  "machineJsonUrl": "https://proudtek.com/machine/blog/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention.json",
  "machineTextUrl": "https://proudtek.com/machine/blog/case-study-regional-hospital-rfid-surgical-sponge-rss-prevention.txt",
  "author": {
    "name": "Proud Tek Editorial Team",
    "title": "RFID & NFC Technical Content Team",
    "expertise": [
      "RFID manufacturing",
      "NFC technology",
      "Access control systems",
      "Smart card engineering"
    ]
  },
  "publisher": "Proud Tek Co., Limited",
  "datePublished": "2026-03-16T01:42:30.697Z",
  "dateModified": "2026-06-10T18:00:00Z",
  "lastReviewedDate": "2026-06-10T18:00:00Z",
  "credentials": [
    "ISO 9001:2015",
    "ISO 14001:2015",
    "RoHS Compliant",
    "CE Marking",
    "REACH Compliant"
  ],
  "generatedAt": "2026-03-16T01:42:30.697Z"
}