Wrong site surgery rates hold steady
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
August 15, 2007
The rate of wrong site, wrong patient, and wrong procedure errors remains steady after years of concerted efforts by hospitals and The Joint Commission to address the problem, according to a Providence Journal article.
As a result, hospitals are reviewing their policies and The Joint Commission is mulling changes to its Univeral Protocol. Part of the problem is the complexity of surgery, according to the article. A small error earlier in the process, such as reversing an X-ray, can lead to serious patient harm, even if all other safety steps are followed correctly.
