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Wrong-site surgeries being studied in Minneapolis, Minnesota

By Steve Lombardi

It's time out in surgery, as hospitals watch doctors by Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Maura Lerner – This article discusses the use of a “Time-out Towel”.

We aren’t changing the oil in a car, its surgery; we are operating on a human body. So why do wrong-site surgeries persist? With all the attention devoted to wrong-patient or wrong-procedure surgeries why are they continuing to occur? What is going on in the operating room that allows the patient to be put at risk?

“Since 2003, 150 surgical mix-ups have been reported throughout Minnesota, including 97 operations on the wrong body part and nine on the wrong patient, according to a recent report from the state health department. Although rare, these headline-grabbing episodes are just a slice of a broader problem of hospital medical errors that affect thousands of patients nationally every year.

So hospital officials are experimenting with new ways to prevent mistakes. One of them is as simple as a cloth.”

Maura Lerner for the Minneapolis Star Tribune

The writer discusses the problem of wrong-site, wrong-patient and wrong-procedure; and why, in most instances, the time-out doesn’t work. A Minnesota hospital studied surgeries and why this surgical safety procedure didn’t work.

Iowa probably has as many wrong-site, wrong-procedure or wrong-patient surgeries as Minnesota. Like Minnesota, Iowa needs to study the how’s and why’s. Join us today and read this article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune written by Maura Lerner.

It’s a good article and Iowa’s hospital officials would be smart to follow suit and study surgical teams and how they are performing or not performing the time-out procedure. With Medicare and several insurance companies no longer paying for never-events there is no financial incentive left in place to ignore the problem. Come on Iowa get with it, figure out our version of the time-out towel. Maybe we could put the logo for the Hawkeyes, Cyclones, Panthers or Bulldogs on it. Go Hawks!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on February 09, 2009 (boomark / email).