PeaceHealth to implement surgical safety system

Ketchikan Medical Center is poised to become the first hospital in the PeaceHealth system and the fourth facility in Alaska to implement the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge in its operating and delivery rooms.

The SurgiCount system is designed to prevent retained medical devices being left inside a human body - one of the most common surgical errors.

Studies have shown that sponges get left inside one patient in every 6,000 surgeries in the U.S.

“We want that number to be zero,” said Patrick Branco, CEO of Ketchikan Medical Center. “By using this system, we intend to eliminate the chance of this happ...