Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

49 Executive Briefing Sponsored by: D espite concerted efforts to improve safety and efficiency in operating rooms, a host of issues still remain. A harmonic scalpel will fall off the sterile operating field, a surgeon who is struggling to put on their gown will be assisted (and touched) by a nonsterile team member and an electrocautery pen will produce smoke that could be dangerous to those in the OR. While each of these issues may seem relatively small, each can affect the safety of patients and staff members and hinder efficiency. Becker's Hospital Review recently spoke with Mark McBride, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with more than 20 years of OR experience, who is also a co-founder and the CEO of Operating Room Innovations (ORI). ORI's mission is to design innovative operating room solutions to enhance safety, outcomes and business performance. Dr. McBride recounted some of the safety-related issues he has seen in ORs and described innovative solutions that ORI is developing to address these issues. A team with extensive OR experience and a troubleshooting mindset Having worked in ORs for more than two decades, Dr. McBride found himself frequently noticing if something appeared unsafe or inefficient. At times he would offer suggestions or ideas, but he reflected, "I often found it difficult to get the attention needed to get these things solved." While working at a hospital in San Diego, Dr. McBride began brainstorming solutions with another orthopedic surgeon, Joseph Jankiewicz, MD, who had even more experience than Dr. McBride. In addition, the two surgeons would exchange ideas with two highly experienced OR scrub technicians, Ruel Salvaldor and Alex Duy Bui. "We all have this troubleshooting, problem-solving mindset," Dr. McBride said. "We all recognized problems in the operating room, and we wanted to develop solutions." Collectively, this team of four decided that the best path forward would be to start a company to create innovative solutions and bring these solutions to ORs across the United States. "The focus of the company," said Dr. McBride, "is safety, efficiency and value through innovation." ORI's first product solved a common OR challenge The first challenge this team identified involved the recognition that surgical tools, such as harmonic scalpels, can fall outside of the sterile operating field or onto the patient. When this occurs, it can lead to potential infections, burns, delays and unplanned costs. (At the hospital where Dr. McBride and the others worked, two harmonic scalpels had fallen outside of the operative field in one week, eliciting a negative response from administrators asking, "How could this happen?") The technicians on the team had an idea for a solution to safely hold surgical tools or tubing in place during a procedure that could prevent these sterile items from falling outside of the sterile field. This idea led to the designing and patenting of ORI's DropStop® Securing Kit. DropStop allows the surgical team to safely secure surgical tools in the operative field. Dr. McBride explained that this solution makes it easy to access the tools, without being cumbersome. He said, "We wanted to make it easy to access the surgical tools. You can position DropStop anywhere [in the surgical field] that works for the individual's workflow." Dr. McBride added, "Having these tools reliably secure, right in the center of the surgical field, where they're safe from contamination, was another goal we wanted to achieve." Benefits from being able to secure these tools and prevent drops of expensive, sterile surgical devices include improved safety, optimized workflow and reduced cost. Also, DropStop allows for customization in that it can be placed anywhere on the surgical field, drape or surgical gown. That way members of the surgical team can safely access the tools they need when they need them. A specific example of how DropStop can be used in the OR involves electrocautery pens, which are often used by surgeons during procedures. These pens are extremely hot and if dropped on a patient can cause burns. An adaptation of DropStop is to secure the pen's plastic holster in the operative field area, right in the surgeon's field of view. Dr. McBride described this application as a win/win — DropStop prevents the pen from being dropped, improves patient safety and improves the surgeon's workflow. "It secures right in the operative field area . . . their workflow is improved, and the surgeons really like it," Dr. McBride said. How a team of surgeons and technicians is bringing practical innovation to the OR

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