Open Collections

Abstract

Within the dynamic and high-stakes environment of the operating room (OR), the inadvertent dropping of surgical instruments represents a notable challenge, with implications for procedural efficiency, patient safety, and overall healthcare costs. Studies have shown that instruments get dropped at significant rate and up to 60% of the cases. Current solutions that have shown to be effective in decreasing the rate of fall, such as magnetic drapes, have limitations, particularly with their inability to support non-metallic instruments. This thesis addresses this gap by designing, developing and evaluating a magnetic retention system that can decrease the rate of fall of nonmetallic instruments. Through an iterative process, the study developed small magnetic clips that can be mounted to non-metallic instruments and allow them to be compatible with the conventional magnetic drapes. To evaluate the new system’s effectiveness, an accelerated testing model was developed and tested in a simulated OR environment, where surgical residents were recruited to preform simulated surgical procedures using the magnetic retention system. The experimental results demonstrated a significant reduction in instrument falls when using the magnetic retention system. Without the system, the mean number of falls was 7.57 per session, while with the system, the mean number of falls dropped to 0.86 per session, p-value