Wrong Patient and Procedure Study Shows Need for Better Oversight

Wrong Patient and Procedure Study Shows Need for Better Oversight According to Briskman Briskman & Greenberg

CHICAGO, IL, Aug 12, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Wrong patient, wrong site and wrong procedure surgeries happen as much as 40 times a week nationwide, a new study by The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare shows. Eight surgery centers and hospitals around the country participated in the study. These problematic incidents are a result of miscommunication, distractions, scheduling and pre-operative processes, and not having all relevant staff participate in Time Out procedures, The Joint Commission said. Also, more errors were committed when more than one procedure was done on a patient.

“Healthcare professionals and organizations that ignore this study and fail to focus on how to improve will put patient safety at risk,” said Chicago personal injury lawyer Paul A. Greenberg, Esq.

The Joint Commission encourages facilities and healthcare professionals to use the Universal Protocol that sets standards for pre-procedure verification, site marking and a Time Out. Only those institutions that follow these guidelines can be accredited by The Joint Commission. In Illinois, The Center for Health Ambulatory Surgery Center in Peoria participated in the study. This surgery center, along with the other institutions, used Robust Process Improvement (RPI) methods to find areas of improvement. RPI uses change management methods and Lean Six Sigma processes to measure the problem level and test solutions.

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