Surgical errors are extremely dangerous. They can cause physical harm, long-term disability or even death. Patients and families are negatively impacted yearly due to the consequences of errors that should have never happened. Wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-patient surgical errors are among the most commonly reported ones.
Here is what to know about these types of surgical errors:
Wrong-site
Wrong-site surgery is when a procedure is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong side of the body. For example, on the right eye instead of the left one. Or when a surgeon removes a healthy organ, such as the right kidney, instead of the diseased left one, or operates on the correct organ, such as a limb/spine, but on the wrong specific spot/level.
Wrong-procedure
Cases of a surgeon performing a different procedure than the one the patient needed or agreed to are often reported. For example, performing a gallbladder removal instead of a scheduled hernia repair or a hysterectomy when the patient only agreed to a fibroid removal.
Wrong-patient
With a wrong-procedure surgical error, the right patient gets an incorrect procedure. With a wrong-patient error, the wrong patient is operated on. Thus, the patient on the operating table is entirely the wrong person, which inherently means they are receiving the wrong procedure.
Causes of surgical errors
Several factors contribute to these surgical errors. These include miscommunication among healthcare providers, inadequate pre-operative planning and rushed procedures. For example, a mix-up in charts, unclear handoff between staff, no site markings, skipping the time-out and fatigue cause many surgical errors.
Wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-patient surgical errors are classified as never events. They are entirely preventable, yet they keep happening. If a surgeon acted negligently, harming you or your loved one, obtain more information about the next steps to take.