The Pros And Cons Of Wrong Site Surgery
Imagine being a patient going into surgery where the surgeon and staff are distracted and a wrong site surgery is performed on yourself or a loved one. Going into surgery is anxiety-provoking enough but the possibility of having a wrong-site procedure is one of the worst possible outcomes. Sadly, this is the reality for too many people in the world. Each week over 40 wrong site surgeries are performed in the United States (Joint Commission, 2017) with a total of 1,300 to 2,700 wrong procedures performed per year (Seiden & Barach, 2006). Patients are at the most risk of a wrong site procedure when they are having an orthopedic surgery (Robinson & Muir, 2009).
Not only could this place a hospital in deep legal trouble, wrong-site surgery could …show more content…
Letting the nurse make the mark allows for nurses to not have to wait for the surgeon and the surgeon does not have to interrupt the daily routine (Schafli-Thurnherr et al., 2017). Verifying the necessary documents streamlines the process by making sure informed consent is signed and that they correct procedure is about to be performed on the correct site (Steelman & Graling, 2013). Double checking that the mark has been made and familiarity with pre- and intra-operative procedures gives more confidence to the surgical team, the patient, and the patient’s family and allows for a smooth process. Effective communication helps avoid confusion and accidentally missing a step or doing steps twice. Regardless of the research made on surgical site marking, more could still be done specifically on whether marking the incision site or the surgeon’s initials is more beneficial and where the mark should be made (in the OR, before the OR, etc.). More research should be focused on whether or not trained nurses can make the surgical mark and also ways to increase compliance with following pre- and intra-operative procedures, such as a monetary penalty for each step missed. Although the issue of wrong site surgeries seems daunting, by implementing small changes to surgical site marking, in addition to pre- and intra-operative procedure changes, the amount of patients experiencing wrong site surgeries can hopefully decrease in the near
Not only could this place a hospital in deep legal trouble, wrong-site surgery could …show more content…
Letting the nurse make the mark allows for nurses to not have to wait for the surgeon and the surgeon does not have to interrupt the daily routine (Schafli-Thurnherr et al., 2017). Verifying the necessary documents streamlines the process by making sure informed consent is signed and that they correct procedure is about to be performed on the correct site (Steelman & Graling, 2013). Double checking that the mark has been made and familiarity with pre- and intra-operative procedures gives more confidence to the surgical team, the patient, and the patient’s family and allows for a smooth process. Effective communication helps avoid confusion and accidentally missing a step or doing steps twice. Regardless of the research made on surgical site marking, more could still be done specifically on whether marking the incision site or the surgeon’s initials is more beneficial and where the mark should be made (in the OR, before the OR, etc.). More research should be focused on whether or not trained nurses can make the surgical mark and also ways to increase compliance with following pre- and intra-operative procedures, such as a monetary penalty for each step missed. Although the issue of wrong site surgeries seems daunting, by implementing small changes to surgical site marking, in addition to pre- and intra-operative procedure changes, the amount of patients experiencing wrong site surgeries can hopefully decrease in the near