Award
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 5R18HS029637-03
Retained Foreign Object Reduction and Mitigation (ReFORM)
Recipient
Medical University of South Carolina
Award Amount
$494,467.00
Ceiling
$494,467.00
Awarded
September 23, 2025
Identifier
5R18HS029637-03
This award funds a project aimed at reducing retained foreign objects in surgical settings by using systems engineering approaches to improve patient safety through modeling, experiments, and organizational strategies.
Description
Retained Foreign Objects (RFOs) are a significant patient safety problem, affecting between 3,000 and 50,000 patients annually, with an 80% morbidity rate. The primary defense is manual counting of surgical items, which can be unreliable. This project proposes a Patient Safety Learning Lab using systems engineering to explore causes and solutions to RFOs, including modeling, experiments, and organizational improvements.