KEEPING TRACK OF THE SCORE – ISSUE NO. 408

Opening Day for baseball is the sure sign that spring is finally back. Here at Healthmark, we are optimistic that the Detroit Tigers will get back on track to contend for the Central Division Title. While watching Sunday night baseball last night, my girlfriend asked, "Why do baseball positions get associated by a number?" Keeping score of many games growing up, I explained that this method is used to score putouts. There are nine fielding positions in baseball. Each position conventionally has an associated number, which is used to score putouts: 1 (pitcher), 2 (catcher), 3 (first baseman), 4 (second baseman), 5 (third baseman), 6 (shortstop), 7 (left fielder), 8 (center fielder), and 9 (right fielder). Numbers are used for the purpose of easily identifying each person on the field and record each play, for instance a ground ball hit to the Stop and thrown out at first would be scored as, "GO 5-3". Baseball is truly a game of numbers. Identity is an essential key to the reprocessing of medical devices as well. There are so many trays, baskets and other items being reprocessed that it is imperative to track and identify each. Many items can be so unique in nature that they require a special customized tag to be identified or may even require an important message to be included with them. Be sure you're identifying the players in the device reprocessing game and properly use identification tags for those specialty items and equipment.