Saturday, October 20, 2012

We Are Going to Need Some New Monkeys

This is a picture of a fenestrated drape.  It is sterile and, among other things, comes in a suture set.  It is made out of a kind of heavy paper towel type of material.  


The whole thing is sterile and kind of extends a sterile field.  If placed over say, a laceration that has been prepped and anesthetized, the laceration would poke through the middle.  This ensures that the suture material doesn't become contaminated by anything.  They are generally supplied by a manufacturer.  See that nice, neat, carefully centered hole in the middle?

Note that I said "middle".  Now, see this?



The hospital has been trying to save money by using making their own fenestrated drapes.  Clearly there are some employees unclear on the definition of "middle".

"Send this down to central supply with a note for the manager", said Gil.  "This is the 3rd one of these I have gotten today, that is so annoying".

To: Central Supply
Re: Fenestrated Drape
Houston, we have a problem.....

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, really? Your hospital is making the drapes? I see problems with that!

EDNurseasauras said...

Yeah. Brings me back to the days when I had to clean instruments, put the kits back together with clean drapes (they used to be cloth) and then autoclave the whole thing. The autoclave was about 100 years old and scared the shit out of me.

Unknown said...

Wow management will really do anything to save a buck these days huh?

Lizzie LVT said...

The labor, materials, and energy to run the autoclave can't be THAT much less than the premade drapes. Especially when you count the unusable ones. What is that, a wet-wipe?

EDNurseasauras said...

We used to get drapes that were sort of like the drool bibs at the dentist office (sorry, there is probably a proper term for that!) but now the drapes are just exactly the consistency of a dry wet-wipe. So so silly

Enid Mueller said...

This is something my facility would do to save money.
I'll have to post some catheter stories.

EDNurseasauras said...

Oh you should!

AFnurse said...

Welcome to the military medical system... We had to deal with this all the time at BAMC/SAMMC