question re: sponge counts

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Specializes in pediatric, neonatal, ER/trauma, camp.

Hi - 1st time in this particular forum. I completed the CLNC course several years ago but haven't done anything with it (not into marketing myself) and have been quite busy with other aspects of nursing. Anyway, I've been talking with a local attorney about doing some work on the side. He mentioned he had a case regarding a surgical sponge left inside the body. My specialty is not surgery so I wondered if anyone knew where I should be looking for "who is responsible for sponge counts"? Is it facility dependent? Is it state dependent? or will the surgeon always blame the nurse and the nurse always blame the suregeon? Should I get the P&P from the local facility?

Thanks in advance...

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Hello, kcangel, and welcome to the Legal Nursing forum

You need to get out your course book and reread about Standards of Care and Scope of Practice. There are many links to help you develop your case.

Also, go to AORN for practice standards: http://www.aorn.org/PracticeResources/

You probably will need to get the entity P/P for the OR. But, no way to know this until you actually review the MR first.

Good luck with your case. Unfortunately, we cannot help you actually develop the case per allnurses.com TOS. Hope you can find what you need with this information.

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