Medline and ClearCount Provide Education Grant to Enhance Patient Safety

Mundelein, Illinois, March 16, 2011—The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) has recently released the AORN Retained Surgical Items Confidence-Based Learning Module (CBL) based on the association’s current Recommended Practices for Prevention of Retained Surgical Items (RSIs). The CBL training is designed to determine what each learner knows about preventing RSIs and their level of confidence in their knowledge.

Preventing retained surgical items is a key patient safety focus in the perioperative setting because any surgical item left in a patient, whether it’s a sponge, towel, instrument fragment or other surgical item, can lead to complications with the patient’s recovery. The successful prevention of retained surgical items requires the knowledge and coordination of every member of the perioperative team.

The development of the CBL was made possible by an educational grant from Medline Industries, Inc. and ClearCount Medical Solutions, Inc. to AORN Foundation. In addition, the companies will fund free access to the module for the first 500 registrants.

“This new RSI Confidence-Based Learning module will help perioperative nurses understand the aspects of counting and the use of adjunct technology to account for soft goods, sharps and instruments,” explained Susan Bakewell, MS, RN-BC, AORN director of perioperative education.

The RSI learning module is designed for directors, managers, educators, staff nurses and other personnel working in traditional operating rooms, ambulatory surgery centers, physicians’ offices, cardiac catheterization laboratories, endoscopy suites, radiology departments and other areas where surgery and other invasive procedures are performed.

Registration for the training will begin on Monday, March 28^th and is available at www.aorn.org/cbl.

About ClearCount Medical Solutions
ClearCount Medical Solutions is a medical device company focused on patient safety solutions. ClearCount has assembled an extendable RFID-based platform that provides a comprehensive solution to improve efficiency while preventing medical errors. ClearCount Medical Solutions has been recognized with a Popular Science 2009 Best of What’s New Award, and has received additional recognition from TIME and WIRED magazines, the 2009 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award, the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) and more. ClearCount’s SmartSponge and SmartWand-DTX systems are the first RFID enabled systems for counting and detecting surgical sponges, thereby improving patient and OR safety, enhancing productivity, and reducing cost. To learn more, visit www.clearcount.com.

About Medline Industries, Inc.
Medline, the nation’s largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products, manufactures and distributes more than 100,000 products to hospitals, extended-care facilities, surgery centers, home care dealers and agencies. Headquartered in Mundelein, Ill., Medline has more than 900 dedicated sales representatives nationwide to support its broad product line and cost management services.