Friday, October 29, 2010

Colorado Doctors Performing Surgery on the Wrong Patient, Wrong Body Part

A recent study of surgical procedures in Colorado hospitals and health care facilities turned up an alarming number of cases where a surgery was performed on the wrong patient or on the wrong body part. The study, reported in the October issue of the medical journal Archives of Surgery, analyzed a database of over 27,000 adverse occurrences reported by physicians between 2002 and 2008. The findings reported 25 procedures performed on the wrong patient and 107 procedures performed on the wrong part of the body. Since the study only looked at physician self-reported incidents, the actual number of wrong surgeries could be significantly higher.

The mistake does not always originate in the surgery room, the study found. For instance, a mislabeled lab result can result in an unnecessary operation being performed, as happened to three men in the study who had healthy prostrate glands accidentally removed. Although procedures have been put in place requiring the surgical team to take a "time-out" before beginning the procedure to review that they have the right patient and the correct surgery site, this protocol is not always performed with the full attention of the surgical staff and often fails to prevent the wrong surgery.

Wrong-site or wrong-patient surgeries are referred to as "never events" because they should never happen; in other words, there should be zero tolerance for these types of mistakes. The medical establishment also has a term called "sentinel event" to refer to an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious injury, signaling the need for immediate investigation and response. Wrong-site surgeries are among the types of incidents reported as sentinel events by The Joint Commission, the foremost health care accreditation and certification organization in the country.

The wrong surgery caused significant harm in 43 of the cases studied, and one patient died following a wrong-site procedure. Any case of this type of medical malpractice is also likely to cause significant emotional trauma in addition to the physical pain and damage done by operating on the wrong patient or the wrong body part. If this type of needless tragedy has happened to you or a member of your family, contact the experienced Colorado medical malpractice lawyers at Paulsen & Armitage, LLC, for assistance.