Two hospitals based in a major metropolitan area on the west coast were fined $125,000 by state regulators for leaving "foreign objects" inside patients. These patients had to endure "corrective operations" to remove the left-behind items. State regulators learned of the surgical errors after receiving reports from the hospitals themselves.
Surgical errors seemingly are becoming more frequent in Pennsylvania and across the United States. In these recent cases, the two hospitals were among 13 that state regulators cited for violations that left patients in "immediate jeopardy of serious injury or death." In the cases of the two Los Angeles hospitals, one incident involved leaving a surgical sponge inside a knee surgery patient as operating room personnel failed to accurately track the number of sponges used. The second incident involved a heart patient who unfortunately had the tip of a cauterizing pencil that had been used to control bleeding, left in the patient's chest cavity.
The knee patient complained of continuing pain and a "lump" near their incision. The sponge was detected and required another operation at a different hospital to remove it. The president and CEO of the hospital reporting the surgical error issued an apology and stated that his facility had "revised its procedures" to prevent a reoccurrence of the mistake.
The other area hospital was fined for the third time in the past several years. This facility has been cited multiple times for violating California licensing requirements. The cauterizing pencil's 2-inch long tip, left inside the heart surgery patient, was discovered during an x-ray procedure. Operating room personnel did not account for the tip after multiple attempts to verify that all sponges, needles and instruments were present after the surgery was complete.
The 13 area hospitals cited for violations collectively must pay total fines of $825,000. Do these circumstances cause you to have less confidence in hospitals and medical staff? Do you believe that surgical errors of these kinds should be preventable? Should the medical professionals responsible for these errors also be held personally accountable?
Source: Los Angeles Daily News, "Hospitals fined for 'foreign objects' left inside surgical patients," Barbara Jones, June 1, 2012