Wrong-site surgery can be a devastating experience for the physician, patient, and hospital. If you’re a physician and haven’t been sued for medical malpractice yet, then the sad truth is that there’s a 75% chance that you will during the course of your career. Being accused of medical malpractice as a result of wrong-site surgery can be a devastating experience. It can negatively affect your practice, your financial standing, and reputation. For this reason, we have come up with a list of strategies for wrong-site surgery prevention.
- Validate Information on Site and Side
The night before the surgery, you should validate the patient’s information needed the next day. Doing this helps prevent the last-minute rash to get everything in order. The patient also gets the chance to confirm the details of the surgery. This not only helps the staff to validate information but also helps the patient mentally prepare for the surgery the next day.
- Check That All Documents Match
A member of staff should go through all the patient’s documents to ensure that all the surgical site information matches up. Look at the informed consent form the patient signed, the procedure on the typed schedule, and the pre-operative notes written by the physician. If there are any inconsistencies, then they should be discussed by the patient and physician to confirm the site of surgery and the way forward.
- Site Should Be Marked
The surgeon performing the procedure should mark the surgical site. Doing this helps hold the surgeon performing the procedure accountable and responsible for the entire procedure. Assigning any other member of staff the responsibility to mark the surgical site increases the chances of wrong-site surgery significantly.
- Put “Red Rules” in Place
Anybody on the surgical team can stop the procedure at any point when they notice something has gone against the standard practice. This is what is referred to as the “red rules”. The surgery should only proceed after the issues raised have been resolved. No one should ignore the “red rules”, not even the lead surgeon.
- Proper Training on the Use of the Surgical Checklist
All staff members should be well trained on how to utilize the surgical checklist to prevent wrong-site surgery. The circulating nurse should be charged with the responsibility of checking off items on the list before a surgical procedure. The hospital should encourage staff members to take checklists seriously as they can be a deterrent to wrong-site surgery.
- Keep the Patient in the Loop During Site and Side Marking
The patient should be involved in the checklist process and the site and side marking that follows. Not only will the patient feel more confident about the safety policies of the facility, the chances of wrong-site surgery will be next to nil.
- Share Wrong-site Surgery Incidences
To make staff aware of the grave consequences of wrong-site surgery, it is important to share incidences that take place in the facility. Involve malpractice lawyers in the process to explain the legal implications. Care should be taken not to victimize the staff members who made the mistake during the process. It should only serve as an awareness creating tool to emphasize the importance of following safety policies.
- Ensure Checklist Compliance Through Random Sampling
Do random checks of procedures in the facility to determine compliance to the safety policy around. Make sure staff members use checklists as prescribed and involve the patient in the site and side identification process. Sampling random surgical procedures and tracking compliance will give a clear picture of the success rate of the safety policies meant to curb wrong-site surgery.
