Wrong Site Surgery: Problems and Solutions
Wrong site surgery (WSS) has been around since surgery itself but the statistics that accompany it are relatively new. Before 1999 there was no number for surgery associated injuries, deaths, and near misses because there was no process or system for recognizing and reporting the incidents (Hughes, Mulloy, 2008). Wrong site surgery can be defined in many ways with many subcategories. One definition is, “surgery performed on the wrong side or site of the body, wrong surgical procedure performed, and surgery performed on the wrong patient, any invasive procedure that exposes patients to more than minimal risk, including procedures performed in settings other than the OR, such as a special procedures unit, an endoscopy unit, and an interventional …show more content…
Another definition is, “wrong site surgery includes taking out the wrong organ, making an incision on the wrong side, putting in a prosthesis the wrong way round, administering a local anesthetic block to the wrong side prior to the surgical procedure” (Edwards, 2008). Both of these definitions discuss procedure errors that should be and are preventable yet from June 2004 to December 2006 there were 427 reports submitted involving some aspect of wrong site surgery. More than 40% of the 427 errors actually reached the patient and almost 20% actually involved completion of the wrong site procedure (Edwards, 2008). With so many errors occurring when the number should be significantly less there should be more awareness and protocols so that the number of near misses and completed procedures can drastically decrease. There are numerous, easy to resolve reasons why WSS errors occur, including: site of operation unclearing or not marked, failure to use the “time out” before and after the procedure,
Wrong site surgery (WSS) has been around since surgery itself but the statistics that accompany it are relatively new. Before 1999 there was no number for surgery associated injuries, deaths, and near misses because there was no process or system for recognizing and reporting the incidents (Hughes, Mulloy, 2008). Wrong site surgery can be defined in many ways with many subcategories. One definition is, “surgery performed on the wrong side or site of the body, wrong surgical procedure performed, and surgery performed on the wrong patient, any invasive procedure that exposes patients to more than minimal risk, including procedures performed in settings other than the OR, such as a special procedures unit, an endoscopy unit, and an interventional …show more content…
Another definition is, “wrong site surgery includes taking out the wrong organ, making an incision on the wrong side, putting in a prosthesis the wrong way round, administering a local anesthetic block to the wrong side prior to the surgical procedure” (Edwards, 2008). Both of these definitions discuss procedure errors that should be and are preventable yet from June 2004 to December 2006 there were 427 reports submitted involving some aspect of wrong site surgery. More than 40% of the 427 errors actually reached the patient and almost 20% actually involved completion of the wrong site procedure (Edwards, 2008). With so many errors occurring when the number should be significantly less there should be more awareness and protocols so that the number of near misses and completed procedures can drastically decrease. There are numerous, easy to resolve reasons why WSS errors occur, including: site of operation unclearing or not marked, failure to use the “time out” before and after the procedure,