Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Doc Heading to Lefty-Right K-Grade Rehab

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is again on the hot heat with another doc needing lefty-righty-rehabilitation. Is it an oxymoron when a hospital that markets itself as a teaching institution has surgeons on staff who don't know left from right? They won't say who nor have they identified the patient although they did say the patient "was expected to have short-term discomfort, but does not have permanent organ damage or life-threatening problems."

"Oops, sorry mate we did a little lefty-righty thingy that you won't like."

To get in the right mood today we should start off with the left and right song. Notice how the guy who talks to you after the song is speaking surgical team tawk.

We've discussed this whole, oops isn't there supposed to be a surgically correctable medical condition on this side of the patient routine and how to resolve the problem, which is really quite simple. You, meaning the surgical team, mark the spot where the surgery is supposed to take place, they take a time out to discuss and confirm site-patient-procedure and then they get to go cut. In this case the surgical team did mark the spot but no time-out was taken. I think doctors hate the time-out and also non-surgeons trying to boss them around with how they should conduct pre-operative surgical procedures. Too bad. Maybe we need a surgical room cop schooled in lefty-righty type issues. How about Arnold from Kindergarten Cop?

Surprising that no one on the surgical team noticed and had the guts to say "Hey doc, why are you cutting on the left side? This is a right side procedure." It's even more surprising the chart was probably right there and no one took the time, certainly not the surgeon, to just read it to confirm left or right. Here is a training video, of sorts, that will take the surgical staff through Beth Deaconess' proper protocol for bringing a doctor's attention to the fact he's on the wrong side.

Please note that at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital small sterilized handguns will now be allowed in the surgical suite as part of the standard operating tool surgical tray.

What did the hospital have to say about the surgeon's mistake? "Sands said the error came during a hectic day, and the memo described the surgeon as "distracted by thoughts of how best to approach the case" just before the surgery." I guess we can all be glad this wasn't to remove a diseased kidney or brain surgery.

The solution here is really pretty simple: If a surgeon has a wrong-site, wrong-patient or wrong-procedure incident he/she has to tell every future patient of the wrong-side incident.

If you're still interested in how doctor's who need lefty-righty-rehabilitation read some of these posts, follow the search link or read more on our website under "What do you do when you've experienced a wrong-site, wrong-patient or wrong-procedure surgical error?".

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