Wrong site surgery
Wrong site surgery - a problem that keeps getting worse
The Washington Post reported recently that, despite protocols that have been adopted over the past decade to prevent them, wrong-site and wrong-patient surgeries are increasing. Such surgeries involve things like amputating the wrong limb or operating on the wrong patient. The article cites patient safety experts at the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospitals Organization (JCAHO), who based their estimates on state data. According to these experts, wrong-site surgery occurs 40 times every week in the United States. They say 48 cases occurred in Minnesota last year, while Pennsylvania averages 64 cases per year, at least over the past several years.
What is truly ironic about these statistics is that, since 2004, the Joint Commission has been focused on the problem and has adopted protocols designed specifically to prevent such errors. The Joint Commission's president, Mark Chassin, a former New York state health commissioner, theorized that the increase in wrong-site and wrong-patient surgeries is complicated because "it involves changing the culture of hospitals and getting doctors - who typically prize their autonomy, resist checklists and underestimate their propensity for errors - to follow standardized procedures and work in teams." In other words, it appears that many doctors resist protocols designed to increase patient safety because they prefer to work "autonomously" rather than "in teams."
If you are having a leg amputated, you might consider getting a magic marker and writing, in big letters on the healthy leg, "NOT THIS ONE, YOU IDIOT." And put a big old "My name is ____" tag on your chest.
