Surgical Mistakes in US on the Rise

Since 1998, the number of operations performed on the wrong body site or the wrong patient has increased dramatically.

The JCAHO is an independent commission that evaluates and accredits about 18,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the US.

In 1998, the JCAHO issued a Sentinel Event Alert after 15 "wrong site" surgery cases were reported to it. By the time the current report was released, this number had skyrocketed to 150.

According to the new figures, orthopaedic/podiatric operations were the most common procedures linked to errors, accounting for 41% of the 126 cases that were analyzed.

General surgery procedures accounted for 20% of the cases, neurosurgery operations for 14%, and urologic surgery operations for 11%. The remaining cases involved other procedures such as dental/oral operations.

Fifty-eight percent of cases occurred in an outpatient surgical setting, 29% in an inpatient operating room, and 13% in other inpatient settings. Most of the errors involved operations on wrong body parts or sites, but 13% involved operations on the wrong patient and 11% involved the wrong surgical procedure.

The JCAHO also identified a number of factors that seemed to increase the risk of surgical mistakes. Among these, emergency cases and physical characteristics of the patient -- such as morbid obesity or physical deformity -- were the most commonly cited.

In addition, most cases involved a "breakdown in communication" between surgical team members and the patient or the patient's family.

The JCAHO is also offering some advice to patients on avoiding surgical errors:

• Make sure you and the surgeon agree on exactly what will be done during the procedure.
   
• Ask to have the surgical site marked with a permanent marker and to be involved in marking the site.
   
• Ask questions and speak up about any concerns.

Have the surgery at a JCAHO-accredited facility. Consumers can find out if a facility is accredited by going to the commission's Web site: www.jcaho.org.

Report by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations December 4, 2001

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

No surprise here. Long time readers of this newsletter will be quite familiar with the fact that the traditional drug and surgical approach to illness is fraught with landmines as additionally evidenced by the articles below.

Related Articles:

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Blunders By Doctors Kill 40,000 a Year in Britain

Doctors Help Kill One in 10 Belgians

Drugs and Medical Errors Killing 1 of Every 5 Australians

Prescription Errors Common In Outpatient Setting

Why Doctors Are 9,000 Times More Likely to Accidentally Kill You Than Gun Owners

 

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