Knowing When Implants Will Expire
This red dot sticker system will minimize wasted supplies.

Want to be able to track your implants' expirations at a glance? Go to your local supply store and buy some red dot stickers. Print the words "EXPIRES 2006" on the stickers, place them on those implants that expire this year, then write the month they expire on the sticker. As a result, the staff knows which implants to pull first, and I scan the shelves on the last week of each month to find out what's expiring. Then you can contact the manufacturer and see if it can swap out your soon-to-expire implants with a hospital that's about to use the same implants. This system has worked so well that I'm now using it for other surgical supplies, such as our sutures.

Shannon Holley, RN, CNOR, RNFA
Orthopedic Service Coordinator
The Toledo Hospital Surgery Department
Toledo, Ohio
writeMail("shannon.holley@promedica.org")