times by, ahem, your
clever coercion.
Whatever the reason,
our readers report
safety scalpel usage
has increased by more
than 25% since 2015.
On the other hand, a
good number of sur-
geons still view safety
scalpels with great
disdain, refusing to use them, resisting to even trial them.
"I would suggest half like them and would rather be practicing safe-
ly. The other half dislike anything new and think the blades dull soon-
er than the others," says Jolene Johnson, MSN, RN, program director
of the Advanced Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine Center at
Warren (Pa.) General Hospital.
Here's a look at the key findings of Outpatient Surgery's Safety
Scalpel Survey. Results are based on the 187 leaders of operating
rooms in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers who completed
our in-depth online survey:
• The haves. 18.82% of our respondents report that their surgeons
"always" use safety scalpels; 13.44% say their physicians "usually" use
them and 11.29% say they "sometimes" use them. Add it up, and you
get a usage rate of 43.55%.
• The have-nots. Safety scalpel use is still far less than expected:
40.86% of respondents say their physicians "never" use them while
another 15.59% say they use them "rarely." On the bright side, the nee-
dle, pardon the pun, is moving slightly in the right direction. In 2011,
M A Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 3
• SURGEON ACTIVATION Passing a safety scalpel to the surgeon with the blade
exposed would defeat the whole purpose of using it in the first place.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
