WRONG SITE SURGERY HIGHEST AMONG SPINE SURGEONS? (Orthopedics This Week)
Joseph Bosco, III, M.D. is vice chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at The New York University Langone Hospital for Joint Diseases. Dr. Bosco, who is also director for the Center for Quality and Patient Safety, walks the halls with prevention in mind.
Dr. Bosco and his colleagues recently published an article on wrong-site surgery in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. He told OTW, “We can’t assume that the problem has disappeared because we have instituted the Sign Your Site program. Our most recent data show that 21% of hand surgeons, 50% of spine surgeons, and 8.3% of knee surgeons have performed wrong-site surgery on at least one occasion.”
What? Really? How?
“There is more and more pressure to increase surgical volume and operate more efficiently,” says Dr. Bosco. “All you need is for the proverbial holes in the Swiss cheese to line up. If a physician schedules a left knee arthroscopy instead of a right knee arthroscopy, 99.99% of the time a nurse or other OR personnel will catch that. But the 0.01% does happen.”
“Problems can arise in spine cases, where there is often extensive deformity an...
