Kalispell Regional Medical Center has entered into a contract with SurgiCount Medical, the wholly-owned operating subsidiary of Patient Safety Technologies, to implement SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System, to prevent a surgical error - retained surgical sponges.

SurgiCount’s Safety-Sponge System consists of individually bar-coded surgical sponges and a portable scanner that enhances traditional manual sponge counts.

Kalispell CEO Velinda Stevens said that SurgiCount’s list of current hospitals and the references they provided was compelling and made this an easy decision.

Patient Safety Technologies president and CEO Brian Stewart said that they were proud to enable KRMC to continue to raise their standard of care and to help protect the hospital, the surgeons and nurses who practice there and their patients from this common but entirely preventable event.