(The Center Square) – A group of medical professionals is calling for Illinois lawmakers to pass legislation that would require surgical technologists to be properly credentialed.
House Bill 1598, sponsored by state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, would create the Operating Room Safety Act. The measure mandates specified education and certification of surgical technologists.
Springfield Clinic orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Wottowa said the technologists use a whole spectrum of complicated equipment.
“If there’s ever a team sport, it’s surgery. If you want to cut corners there, I’m not going to be involved,” Wottowa said.
Margaret Vaughn, government affairs director for the Illinois State Assembly of Surgical Technologists, said HB 1598 is common sense.
“Studies have shown in states that have this legislation like Indiana, like New York, the bills for surgical payers have gone down, because there’s shorter hospital stays, less risk of infection and overall better patient care,” Vaughn said.
According to Vaughn, non-accredited online programs have popped up since the COVID-19 pandemic, but students in those programs are not well-prepared.
“They’re not putting them at a mock operating room at a community college. They’re getting their hands-on training with a live patient,” Vaughn said.
Brittany Burgess, program director at Midwestern Career College in Chicago & Evergreen Park, said Illinois has the capacity to graduate nearly 500 surgical technologists per year in accredited programs, or about double the job growth projected by the Illinois Department of Employment Securities Occupational Report in the next decade.
“So this bill would not cause a job shortage, but what this bill will do, it’ll raise the bar for patient care,” Burgess said.
She added that the measure would reduce surgical site infections and surgical errors.
