Confident Voices in Healthcare | The Nurse Who Took Charge of Patient Safety – Part 2: Why is ERMA so important?

The following is the second article in a three-part series about inventor Jean Snyder, DNAP, CRNA, who shares how she was inspired to take action to improve safety in high risk areas such as the OR, ED, and ICU. She tells us why her Error Reduction and Mitigation Aide is important and details her path for making her idea a reality while giving advice to others who would like to  innovate too. She is a Virginia nurse who is working with The Innovation Institute in Southern California to develop and distribute her invention.

Part 2: Why is ERMA so important to patient safety?

The Error Reduction and Mitigation Aide (ERMA) that I designed is a clear reservoir inserted between the re-entry proof top and opaque terminal disposal portion of a traditional needle box. It allows a practitioner in any high-risk area (OR, ED, ICU) to have visualization of all the syringes and vials used during the course of a procedure, anesthetic or surgery. At the end of a single procedure, a trap door in the bottom of the reservoir is released to allow those sequestered vials and syringes to drop into the bottom of the needle box for terminal disposal. Providers now have a means to refer back to any medication delivered for an individual patient. ERMA allows us to recognize errors in a timely fashion and address the untoward events that may arise from the error in a timely fashion. More…