Hospital Defends Role in Surgery Error

Hospital Defends Role in Surgery Error

St. Vincent Hospita in Worcesterl defends its role in a surgery gone terribly wrong. The Hospital said in a statement to GoLocal on Wednesday night said there staff did nothing wrong and that the error was caused by someone outside their staff.

Saint Vincent Hospital is under investigation by state and federal authorities following allegations that the hospital operated on the wrong patient, and removed the patient's kidney. 7News was first to report Wednesday that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is reviewing the incident. 

"This is a deeply unfortunate situation involving a patient misidentification that took place outside of our hospital and did not involve our employees. Our staff followed proper protocols in preparing for and performing the surgery, which was scheduled by the patient’s physician at our hospital," said Caitlin S. Lubelczyk, Marketing Manager at the Hospital. 

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But, many questions remain. Each year about 2,700 wrong side, wrong patient surgeries take place and correspondingly, the healthcare industry has developed stringent protocols to ensure that they do not occur.

SEE PROTOCOL BELOW

In the U.S. over a twenty-year period, 9,744 malpractice settlements for surgical "never events" were paid {1990 to 2010) totaling $1.3 billion. Of the settlements analyzed, approximately 6 percent of patients died, 32.9 percent of patients suffered a permanent injury and 59.2 percent of patients experienced temporary injuries, according to Infection Control & Clinical Quality.

In 2010, Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) was hit Tuesday with a $300,000 fine by the Rhode Island Department of Health for an August  incident when, during neurosurgery, a small piece of a drill bit broke off and was left lodged in a patient's scalp.

The Department of Health conducted a joint investigation with the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and discovered that the hospital is not actively ensuring that the operating room staff is following existing hospital policy.

RIH’s surgical count policy states that if a surgical tool or device is unaccounted for at the end of surgery, an x-ray of the patient should be done before the patient leaves the operating room to assure that the tool or device is not inside the patient. In the August incident, no x-ray was taken and the surgical count was documented as correct. “We found evidence they were not following their policies once again,” said Dr. David Gifford, then the Director of the Department of Health, “and the staff was reporting issues in the operating room that weren’t addressed.” Gifford added that operating room staff reported the anesthesiologist neglected to wear a mask during administration as well. “It’s a continued pattern of non-compliance with their own policies and procedures,” added Gifford.

Gifford noted in 2010 the $300,000 penalty is the department’s highest issued fine in state history, to the best of his knowledge, and double than the previous wrong-side surgery which occurred in September 2009, when a RIH surgeon operated on the wrong finger of a patient. Prior to that, the hospital made headlines in 2007 after three separate brain surgeries were done in the wrong location and when a surgeon operated on the wrong side of the mouth on a patient with a cleft palate.

If protocols were followed is unclear how such an error could be made. Healthcare privacy laws limit much of what the hospital or regulators can disclose, but what is reported is that a kidney was removed from the wrong patient.

"Saint Vincent Hospital is committed to providing safe, high-quality care to every patient who enters our doors.  We are saddened that this incident occurred and our leadership continues to assure the individual receives the support and care needed," said Lubelczyk.