Hospital Fined and Under Surveillance Due to Increased Incidence of Wrong-Site Surgery

The largest hospital in Rhode Island has been fined with $150,000 after its fifth case of wrong-site surgery since 2007. Prior to the latest fine, the same hospital has been fined $50,000 in the past for three cases of brain surgeons operating on the wrong parts of the heads of three patients.

In the latest incident, the supposedly operation on two different fingers has been done to a single finger instead. According to the report, instead of marking each finger as the surgical sites, the marking was put on the wrist. The marking which was to be the primary indicator of the surgical site was not put in by the surgeon who was to do the procedure but by another member of the surgical team. There was no time out or any form of verification before the surgery. After they discovered the error, the surgeon asked the patient’s relatives if they should do the procedure on the correct finger. With the family’s consent, they carried on with the operation without doing another time out.

Not only the operating physician, but all members of the operating team, including the nurses, are to be held accountable for such errors. Though the surgeon is the head of the operating team and calls all the shots, nurses, as patient advocates, should see to it that all protocols and procedures are done correctly. When nurses notice something amiss, like time outs, they should speak up and remind the physician of things that they might have overlooked. Also, duties and responsibilities should be well defined, like the placement of markings on the operating site should exclusively be done by the surgeon who will do the operation. As for physicians, taking reminders or recommendations from nurses does not make them less of a good doctor. Members of the health team are equally responsible and should work together to uphold patient safety and ensure the quality of health services that they deliver.