Hospital Fined for Wrong-Site Surgery

Beth Janicek

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The Health Department has fined Rhode Island Hospital for $150,000, after a surgical team violated safety policies when it operated on the wrong finger of a patient. This October incident was the fifth-wrong site surgery at this hospital since January 2007. Health Director David R. Gifford said,

“This pattern of surgical errors is completely unacceptable and must be corrected to protect the safety of all patients at the hospital.”

The surgery team failed to properly mark the fingers and failed to follow the rules for “time out,” a pause before the surgery to verify the patient, procedure, and site. The report also said that the hospital was not even following the error-prevention protocol that was adopted statewide on July 1^st. The Health Department reprimanded the hospital, mandated observation of every surgery for a year, required full adoption of the statewide surgical protocol and required the installation of video and audio monitoring in every operating room. The hospital was also given a fine, which was only the second time the state has fined the hospital.

These medical errors should never occur, so five wrong-site surgeries since January 2007 is completely unacceptable. Every facility should have policies and procedure in place to prevent these types of errors from occurring. There should be retribution through the civil court system and through the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for people and facilities that violate these procedures.