Loyola University Medical Center, a Chicago-area Level 1 Trauma Center, has announced plans to use new technology to help surgical teams track all sponges used during a procedure.

About 1,000 times a year, a surgical sponge is left inside a patient during a procedure.

To prevent that from happening at its facility, Loyola is becoming one of the first hospitals in the country to use bar-coded sponges.

A nurse will scan each sponge before and after it’s used, and the system will alert the operating team if any sponges are left behind. Doctors and nurses will continue to do manual counts.

Surgical sponges, made of lightweight gauze, are used to soak up blood and protect organs. Once soaked in blood, a sponge can blend in and easily be missed.