Last week we wrote about a possible medical malpractice case where a surgeon operated on the wrong eye of a 4-year-old boy who was supposed to have corrective eye surgery. Unfortunately, the young boy's surgical error is one of thousands that occur in the United States every year that could have been prevented.

About seven surgical errors occur each day in the United States and every year as many as 2,700 surgical mistakes are committed on the wrong body part or wrong patient. According to one doctor who is the former CEO of the safety advocacy group National Quality Forum, the wrong-eye surgery that was performed on the 4-year-old boy should have never happened. Hospitals are advised to use surgical checklists, but even though checklist systems have improved over the last ten years there are still limitations to the checklists.

According to the spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology surgical marks can get covered up by surgical draping or eye surgeons can become disoriented during surgery because they are familiar with examining the patient from a different angle. The young boy's surgical mistake supposedly occurred because surgical marks were covered. Safety advocates say there are six things patients can do to reduce their risk of a wrong-site surgery.

To begin, patients should simply ask, "What are you going to do to ensure that you don't operate on the wrong site?" The question puts the concern of a wrong-site surgery into the mind of the doctor. It may also help a doctor who is new to the patient review their records. Next time, we will continue to discuss the remaining five things patients can do to protect themselves.

Source: CNN, "Patients, beware of wrong-side surgeries," Sabriya Rice, 4/28/11