CEO offers full disclosure for recent medical error at Boston hospital

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July 9, 2008

A wrong-site surgery occurred on July 3 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, reports The Boston Globe. The surgery is being described as an elective orthopedic procedure. Hospital administrators sent an e-mail to all staff members informing them of the medical error. Paul Levy, CEO of the hospital who also writes the popular healthcare blog Running a Hospital, is trying to use the event as something from which the hospital as a whole can learn. Levy has given lots of space on his blog to the techniques BIDMC uses to prevent medical errors.

The article says it had been several years since an error of this type had happened at the hospital. BIDMC is a Harvard affiliate, one of many in the Boston area. Prior to the procedure there was no "time out," a requirement as part of The Joint Commission's Universal Protocol.

To read the article, click here.