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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Contact Congress Over Drug Shortage Issues

A Kentucky congressman is urging surgical facilities to contact their members of Congress and request that they sign his letter demanding changes to...

N.J. Posts ASC Inspection Reports Online

State and federal inspection reports of New Jersey's ASCs are now available online, giving patients an opportunity to make more informed choices abo...

Are Opioids Necessary?

While it's not always practical, or even possible, to eliminate opioids from your post-op pain management regiment, reducing their use in favor of n...

Archive > March, 2006 Vol. VII, No. 3

Ideas That Work

Knowing When Implants Will Expire

Edited by Diana Procuniar, RN, BA, CNOR

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")

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Categories: Business Management, Ideas That Work, Cosmetic Surgery, Supplies/Implants
Keywords:
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