ers to hold surgical teams accountable for being actively involved in
the process. Smart logic, for example, could require them to answer
specific questions about the patient and procedure instead of mind-
lessly responding to a series of "yes" or "no" questions (What is the
correct site and who marked it? Who is this patient? What is the fire
risk score?).
"We're trying to figure out how to make the process as efficient as
possible without compromising the quality of the data collected," says
Ms. Lindenauer.
Toward the end of a case, members of the surgical team could also
use the smart speaker to call the nurse's station to let a turnover team
know the OR needs to be cleaned and the PACU to let nurses there
know a patient will be arriving soon. They can also ask a nurse to
inform loved ones in the waiting room that a case is running late or
that everything is moving along as expected.
Smart speakers are being tried in other patient care areas — pre-
op and post-op hold some potential — so patients can verbally
request assistance from a staff member, get answers to frequently
asked questions, turn on a television in the room, listen to music or
play interactive games such as Jeopardy.
Hurdles to clear
None of the commercially available smart speakers are HIPAA com-
pliant, which is an issue that needs to be addressed before the tech-
nology becomes commonplace in sensitive OR environments. Ways to
authenticate the team members who use smart speakers to document
events during surgery or request information must also be solved. A
possible short-term solution, according to Ms. Lindenauer, is to have
staff members end their interactions by stating their employee badge
numbers.
1 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 2 0