As an orthopedic ASC with precious little storage space, one of our biggest challenges was lugging 3,000cc bags of irrigation fluid from the sterile room to the OR across the hall. Not only was this an inefficient use of our circulator's time, but also we were concerned from an infection control standpoint about the OR door swinging open so often. It was a chore until one of our staff members hit upon the perfect solution: an Igloo cooler on wheels.

As you can see from the picture, the cooler doesn't take up much OR space (we store it behind the fluid cart) and it holds about 18 3,000cc bags, plenty for an ACL or any other high-fluid-volume procedure. We fill the cooler with the seven-pound bags before the first day's cases. Whenever we need more fluid, the circulator simply reaches down into the cooler, pulls out what she needs and hangs the bags.

Karen Bennett, RN, ONC
ASC Manager
Academy Orthopedics ASC
Cumming, Ga.
writeMail("kbennett@academyorthopedics.com")