An arthroscopy method ought to have been performed on the casualty’s right knee yet in its place it was performed on the left knee meaning that a wrong-site surgical procedure has occurred at the hospital as stated by the unit, Critical Concept 8.2. The paper discusses in details the some of the errors that occur during medical procedures done on patients and the operational procedures done on the wrong-sites on patient’s body and possible measures to prevent wrong-site surgery.
The medical procedure which incorporates an operation done on the incorrect side or site of a patient’s body is known as wrong-site surgery. It may also involve an operation performed wrongly, and a surgical procedure is done on the unintended patient (Mulloy and Hughes, 2008). Also, exhibit 8.2 speaks of the various errors which were done by every medical professional who participated in the patient’s treatment. The curative mistakes which include wrong-site surgical procedures may at times turn out to be more severe and may cost the health center immense malpractice litigation, as well as compromising the organization’s reputation. Each healthcare establishment must have a set of conventions to avert wrong-site surgeries. Fortunately, some useful strategies can be utilized to prevent such mistakes from occurring.
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The first approach to take to prevent wrong-site surgery is validating information on site and side the night prior to the performance of the operation. A medical professional must confirm the information required for the following morning. Doing this allows the patient to confirm the medical details and does away with last-minute anxieties (Knight and Aucar, 2010). Several health centers should carry out a telephone cross-examination with the patient the night prior to the operation to verify the guidelines, for the staff member to know if the patient is well-prepared for the surgery the following day.
Secondly, offering training to every staff member on how to utilize a surgical checklist is necessary. All operating rooms must make use of a surgical checklist to avoid wrong-site surgery mistakes. Since several significant steps have to be carried out pre-procedure and before incision, a checklist is necessary to remind the staff members of every step to avoid any poor outcome. It is the circulating nurse’s responsibility to mark off details on the checklist, in which at that time all activities in the operating room should stop (Mulloy and Hughes, 2008). Besides, the hospital management must encourage team members to seriously go through their checklists and create a no-tolerance rule for those who do not abide by them. Furthermore, the administration should take a step in sharing occurrences with medical mistakes especially wrong-site surgery in the hospital to stress the significance of safety rules. As much as the management it is not necessary to point out the person who is responsible; it is important to gather information about how the mix up of the patients occurred and the way the surgery was done to avoid the wrong-site surgery from occurring in the future (Kohn et al., 2000).
Moreover, the hospital should sample casual procedures to ascertain compliance with the checklist. Establishing a set of rules about wrong-site surgery is rather impractical when nobody abides by them. Instead, the management should ensure that the staff members are making use of their checklists, examine if the surgeon marks the site and involves the patient who is undergoing the operation, recommend selecting random techniques, and observe the pre-operative breaks. This information must be tracked over time to regulate if compliance is progressing and the manner in which that compliance connects to the rates of surgical mistakes (Mulloy and Hughes, 2008).
Involving the patient in indicating the site and side is the fourth necessary strategy that aids in preventing surgical mistakes. The patient must be awake throughout the checklist procedure to verify the correct location and side of the surgery. The patient may probably have more confidence in the amenity’s safety when he is taking part in ascertaining the right site of the surgery (Kohn et al., 2000).
The fifth approach that the hospital can take to prevent wrong-site surgical procedures is to pre-operatively ensure that every document agrees on the side and site of surgery. Before the surgery, the staff members must go through each report linked to the operation to ensure that the information concerning the operating site corresponds. The staff member should check the apprised agreement form ratified by the patient other than the technique keyed in on the schedule as well as the doctor's note printed pre-operatively regarding the procedure. Whichever conflict should trigger a discussion with the patient and the surgeon concerning the right side of the operation and the ultimate way to progress (Kohn et al., 2000).
Lastly, medical professionals ought to establish rules which permit all staff members to end the operating process in the case of hesitance from any staff member (Knight and Aucar, 2010). All through the time-out before the surgery, staff members have to confirm the site and side of the operation if at all possible with the patient, and the physician indicates the location. This kind of policy is known as ‘red rules.’ The ‘red rules’ imply that everybody on the surgical team has a right to declares the 'red rule' if they notice anything inconsistent with the criteria of practice, and end the surgery until a solution is found. It is crucial to introduce the customs of "red rules" in the operating room and surgeons as well as other benefactors must be reminded that nobody is permitted to overlook the red rules for every facility procedure.
To conclude, an arthroscopy method ought to have been performed on the casualty’s right knee yet in its place it was performed on the left knee meaning that a wrong-site surgical procedure has occurred at the hospital as stated by the unit. The medical procedure which incorporates an operation done on the incorrect side or site of a patient’s body is known as wrong-site surgery. Exhibit 8.2 speaks of the various errors which were done by every medical professional who participated in the patient’s treatment. The approaches to take to prevent wrong-site surgery are; validating information on site and side the night prior to the performance of the operation, offering training to every staff member on how to utilize a surgical checklist is necessary and the hospital should sample casual procedures to ascertain compliance with the checklist. The outcomes of wrong-site surgery are usually very devastating for the facility, physician, and most importantly to the patients. Such an error is avoidable only if the whole staff that is taking care of the patient shares the responsibility. Also, emphasis must be put on the patient’s contribution. Thirdly, surgeons should mark the correct part of the body when a bilateral tissue is included. To add, it is cautious for medical professionals to make use of these simple steps since minor mistakes and chains of errors cause significant disasters.
References
Knight N, Aucar J. (2010). Use Of An Anatomic Marking Form As An Alternative To The Universal Protocol For Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, And Wrong Person Surgery. The American Journal of Surgery.
Kohn, T.L, Corrigan, M.J., Donaldson, S.M. (2000). To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System . Institute of Medicine.
Mulloy, D.F., Hughes, R.G. (2008). Wrong-Site Surgery: A Preventable Medical Error, in Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses . Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, Maryland, Chapter 36, P. 1-11.
