Either pharmacy or anesthesia can load medication (vials or pre-filled syringes) into the Saf-T-Tray. Use of the optional Saf-T-Station makes it easy and convenient to efficiently prepare batches of trays. When the Saf-T-Trays are fully loaded, the lid is secured with zip ties to prevent spills or diversion. A label can be affixed to the lid for inventory control or patient specificity. Some labels may be auto-read by medication inventory control systems.
If you use an automated medication dispensing system, the Saf-T-Tray can be loaded directly into these secure machines. Otherwise, trays can be staged to the OR using the normal methods your facility employs.
When the anesthesia provider is ready to prepare for a case, the Saf-T-Tray is opened and the first vial is removed. A standard syringe is labeled and used to draw up the medication. Both the syringe label and the vial label can be confirmed before placing them in the Saf-T-Tray as a matched set. This is repeated for each medication.
This optional but recommended step involves putting everything from the case back into the Saf-T-Tray, securing it, and sending it with the patient to recovery. The idea is that should anything abnormal occur during recovery, the entire story of what medications have been used in what amounts is right there with the patient.
When patient recovery is complete, the Saf-T-Tray makes it quick and easy to reconcile what drugs were used in what amounts without trying to dredge up the case from memory at a later time. Drugs can either be restocked or witnessed and wasted per facility policy. The Saf-T-Tray itself is 100% recyclable!
How can the Saf-T-System fit my facility’s workflow?
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Saf-T-Tray
The Saf-T-Tray is the heart of the Saf-T-System. The Saf-T-Tray design is the careful culmination of a combination of lean/six-sigma, expert recommendations, and review by hundreds of clinicians, all with the intention to reduce opportunities for the “big three” anesthesia medication error sources: substation/swap errors (vials or syringes), repetition/omission errors, and labeling errors.
Benefits:
The physical and visual cues designed into the Saf-T-Tray are intended to reduce the opportunity for human error. The Simulation Study showed remarkable effectiveness in achieving this design goal (view). The key design features that enable this are:
Visual Cues
- Medication names molded into tray
- Aligned nests and slots are color coded to the international standard
- Lid can support labeling – expiration dating, patient specificity, allergies, etc.
Physical Cues
- Fitted single-item vial nests
- Fitted single-item syringe slots
- No syringes of the same size or color are ever adjacent
- Syringe/vial pairings are aligned and overlap each other
- Medications are arranged in the most typical order of use
The Saf-T-Tray provides a defined space for all medication containers used for a single patient, facilitating the investigation and reducing the opportunity for the inadvertent mingling of medications among patients.
Also, if a pharmacy loads the vials, there are at least two sets of eyes on every medication. And the lid prevents displacement and mixing/confusion among vials and syringes should the tray be jostled. In addition, the Saf-T-Tray is designed to reduce production pressure by simplifying and standardizing medication layout and workflow.
Saf-T-Holder
Every anesthesia provider knows how precious OR real estate is near the head of the patient, and many have also scrambled as vials or syringes have inadvertently taken a tumble. The optional Saf-T-Holder solves those problems! Able to attach to any iv pole (as well as many other attachment points), the Saf-T-Holder securely holds the Saf-T-Tray at a convenient and easy to access height, without using up any valuable anesthesia machine or supply cart surfaces. The optional magnetically attachable Saf-T-Lite does two thing– its 5X magnification lens makes it easier to read the challenging small fonts on medication labels, and its battery-powered LED light illuminates the vials and syringes in low-light OR procedures.
The design features that deliver these benefits include:
- Universal Clamp
- Lightweight design
- 5X magnification
- LED illumination
Saf-T-Station
While the Safe-T-System is designed to fit seamlessly into your workflow, if pharmacy fills the Saf-T-Tray with medications, this will be a new task for them. To make this as easy as possible, the optional Saf-T-Station is available. Designed with pharmacy input to fit their busy workflow for batch Saf-T-Tray preparation, this workstation is simple to erect and collapses to take up very little space when not in use. Available in counter-top/cart-top and wall-mount versions.
Features:
- Lightweight but sturdy aluminum construction
- Holds up to 5 trays
- Easy batch loading and verification of contents
