Florida Wrong-side Surgery News

Lakeland Neurosurgeon Dr. Rajan Raj Faces State Penalty

By Robin Williams Adams
The Ledger

Published: Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:54 p.m.

LAKELAND | The Florida Department of Health is offering Dr. Rajan Raj, a Lakeland neurosurgeon, another chance to resolve a series of administrative complaints against him, one dating to previous discipline and three others on new allegations.

....

Drilling a burr hole, an opening in the skull made to drain blood, into the head of a patient whom the DOH said didn't need that done. The hole was made during an Oct. 24, 2008, procedure in which Raj was replacing a brain shunt on a man with hydrocephalus, excessive fluid on the brain. Raj said in his operative report there was blood to drain, necessitating the burr hole. DOH disagrees.

Wrong-Site, Wrong-Side, Wrong-Patient, Wrong-Procedures Surgery News

The first news item is a risk review article from an insurance company dated March 2008. It appears to be written by a nurse. I tend to agree with her conclusions about why wrong-site, wrong-patient and wrong-procedure surgery occurs. I have friends and clients that are doctors and so I'm sensitive to both sides of this issue. The easiest way to avoid it is to review the chart just before the surgery, confirm the surgery with the patient and then to conduct the time-out. Simple to do, but unfortunately not done in many instances. Nine times out of ten you won't do it and you'll get away with it; doing the right surgery on the correct patient and with the right surgery; but what about that one time? Then what?

Here conclusions are:

These risk factors include:

• more than one surgeon involved in the case, either because more than one surgery is contemplated or the care of the patient required more than one surgeon
• unusual time pressures, related to an unusual start time because of emergent situations or pressure to speed up the pre-operative procedure
• incorrect site preparation by the staff and incorrect interpretation of X-rays
• unusual patient characteristics such as physical deformity or morbid obesity that might alter the usual process for equipment set-up or positioning of the patient

Tightrope Surgery Training Free PDF Download - MildPDF.com
Wrong Site Surgery Pg 4 Risk Management Wrong Site Surgery Pg 1 Walking the Tightrope of the New Discovery skills which are required for the position ...
mildpdf.com/result-tightrope-surgery-training.html

This second link is really not very helpful. It seems more like an ad than a solution; and appears to be written by a non-lawyer and non-doctor. So I'm not recommending it.

What injuries are typically associated with malpractice ...
In certain cases, these injuries may clearly visible and indisputable (such as wrong site surgery or wrong site amputations), while in other cases, ...
www.medicalmalpractice.com/.../what-injuries-typically-asso?...

This next article you'll get a redirect notice and so follow this link. Here is the Meta data description of what this article focuses on.

Wrong Site Surgery/Procedures Continue - A new study reported in the Archives of Surgery reports that wrong-site and wrong-patient continues to occur. Half of the wrong site procedures were performed outside of the OR. Significant harm occurred in about 25% of wrong-patient and 39% of wrong-site procedures. These events can happen in our hospital and emphasize the importance of strictly following Universal Protocol.

Wrong Site Surgery/Procedures Continue « Quality at Children's ...
By RobPayne
A new study reported in the Archives of Surgery reports that wrong-site and wrong-patient continues to occur. Half of the wrong site procedures were performed outside of the OR. Significant harm occurred in about 25% of wrong- patient ...
Quality at Children's Minnesota - http://qualityatchildrensmn.org/

Arch Surg. 2010 Oct;145(10):978-84.

Wrong-site and wrong-patient procedures in the universal protocol era: analysis of a prospective database of physician self-reported occurrences.

Stahel PF, Sabel AL, Victoroff MS, Varnell J, Lembitz A, Boyle DJ, Clarke TJ, Smith WR, Mehler PS.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Denver Health Medical Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 80204, USA. philip.stahel@dhha.org

Comment in:

Arch Surg. 2010 Oct;145(10):984.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency, root cause, and outcome of wrong-site and wrong-patient procedures in the era of the Universal Protocol.

20 Ways to Help Prevent Medical Errors « MedMemory - Blog
By Administrator
Doing surgery at the wrong site (for example, operating on the left knee instead of the right) is rare. But even once is too often. The good news is that wrong- site surgery is 100 percent preventable. The American Academy of Orthopaedic ...
MedMemory - Blog - http://site.medmemory.com/blog/

20 Ways to Help Prevent Medical Errors « MedMemory - Blog
By Administrator
Doing surgery at the wrong site (for example, operating on the left knee instead of the right) is rare. But even once is too often. The good news is that wrong- site surgery is 100 percent preventable. The American Academy of Orthopaedic ...
MedMemory - Blog - http://site.medmemory.com/blog

Tangential Lighting Aids in the Identification of Biopsy Sites ...
Wrong-site surgery in the setting of cutaneous malignancy is a significant source of emotional, psychological, and medical distress for patients.1 It is one ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1524-4725...x/full