A surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital operated on the wrong finger during outpatient hand surgery on Thursday, a hospital statement acknowledged Friday morning. It was the fifth wrong-site surgery at Rhode Island Hospital, and the sixth in the state, since 2007.
The patient was scheduled for surgery on two fingers. A joint on one finger underwent a procedure intended for another finger, hospital president Timothy J. Babineau said in a letter to employees.
“The patient subsequently underwent surgery on the correct finger and joint, did well and was discharged home later that day,” Babineau’s letter said. “The surgeon discussed the error with the patient and, in keeping with our policy, the Department of Health was immediately notified.” The hospital said it would not disclose further details about the surgery to protect the patient’s confidentiality. “Overall, we’re frustrated and we’re seriously concerned that this seems to be a continuing pattern at Rhode Island Hospital,” Beardsworth said. The results of the Health Department investigation will not be available immediately. “This error reminds us of the extraordinary complexity and difficulties in preventing medical errors — particularly wrong-site surgery,” Babineau wrote to employees.
Just before my knee surgery last spring, I asked the prep nurse to mark the correct knee before they put me under. Instead, she left my sock on the foot of the leg they were operating on. It was neither complicated nor difficult.
In the USA they have the best medicine money can buy. Hah!
It’s Obama’s fault because someone should start selling T-shirts with the first three words of this sentence.
My wife had a masectomy… she wrote on it with magic marker…
“This one”…
Everything turned out fine…
Sometimes you have to help out.
In Canada they operate on the wrong finger for free.
You’d think they’d come up with some kind of plan around 3 or 4.
4. Happens far more often than you think. Hey, how about that guy that woke up with his appendix intact but missing his legs? What government healthcare bureaucrat got fired for that oops? Answer: nobody.
#6, Stooopid,
What government healthcare bureaucrat got fired for that oops? Answer: nobody.
Why would a bureaucrat get fired because of what a doctor did?
O’care will make sure you don’t have the opportunity to sue for such mistakes.
At the surgery centers where I operate, *I must* mark the operative site while the patient is in still in pre-op, before they get any medicine. Additionally, I have worked where the patient was required to mark the site.
And we now have an insane amount of “time-outs” where the patient name, ID, wrist bracelet, consent, operative site and things are checked. Sometimes these time-outs are within minutes of one another without anyone coming or going out of the room.
I had a hernia operation, and knee surgery. Both times, a nurse marked with a permanent marker what to cut up. I also had a couple of colonoscopys, but there is only one of those, and in my case, as all of you know, it is hard to miss.
That’s right ladies and gentlemen the US leads the world in Healthcare!
What a crok, Bunch of has-beens that can’t tie their own shoes anymore because they’re entitled to everything.
At least they weren’t all on the same guy!!
Inconceivable. I used to explain the upcoming procedure to my patients as I used a magic marker to demonstrate. Nowadays, if the surgeon spends any time explaining, it will be a resident working under the big guy.
But, have no fear. Once we get rationed care we won’t amputate that bad finger, we’ll just wait and see if it falls off by itself.
#8 You are so wrong. The Dems won’t do tort reform in fact their bill undoes tort reform in those states with tort reform by punishing those with tort reform and offering bribes not to do tort reform.
The tort lawyers are Dems and they’d paid up.
I think a Dr who does a something like this needs to take a nice long vacation with no pay.
Its the doc PERSONALLY, and the OR head nurse. Both are charged with confirming/agreeing with the right side of the body on the right patient to go after. Same with instrument counts AND all sorts of other little things that can go wrong.
I once saw the head baby doc go from bassinet to bassinet touching all the little kiddies without the wasteful defensive medicine of changing gloves or washing his hands. I pounded on the window and told him to stop. Got evicted from the Hospital. Wrote a few letters. No follow up from anyone.
Its the WORST docs that many people are afraid to confront. Its why they are bad to begin with.
Wait lemme see if I got this straight, doctors pay malpractice insurance for this kind of thing. So the insurance companies will do their best to protect the doctor. While other insurance companies are busy protecting the hospital. Obviously the patient has insurance otherwise he wouldn’t be in the hospital, does that mean the patient is being protected? I mean it seems to me the insurance companies make it their top priority to pay out as little as possible, right? I can imagine trying to prove negligence in these cases, better get Perry Mason, and be ready for a long battle. On top of that, what happens if they do take out something they shouldn’t, does that mean the insurance provider can drop you for a pre-exsisting condition? Oh yeah, public medicine is great! – For the lawyers and the insurance companies.
When I had surgery on my leg, the nurse drew a circle on the leg to be operated on, and an ‘X’ on the other one.
Some potential surgical mistakes can be easily handled with a sharpie.