TRASH PICKER It's never fun to dig through trash bags to find a missing instrument, but it'll at least help to know which bag to look in.

Numbered Trays And Trash Bags
Never Lose Another Eye Instrument

We were tired of getting our eye trays back only to discover that the scissors or some other tiny, expensive instrument was missing from them. Here's a simple solution we came up with to cut down on missing instruments. We were already numbering our instrument trays to track post-op infections. Now, at the conclusion of a case, we label the outside of the trash bag with the room number, case number and tray number. If a tray is found to be missing an instrument, it's easy to track which trash bag it might be in.

Donna Cooley, RN
Scripps Mercy Surgery Pavilion
San Diego, Calif.
[email protected]