Is surgery on the right track? The burden of wrong-site surgery

Ahsan Zil-E-Ali; Lily Laubscher; Islam Kourampi; Christos Tsagkaris

doi:10.1080/08998280.2023.2231714

Is surgery on the right track? The burden of wrong-site surgery

Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2023 Jul 5;36(5):657-660. doi: 10.1080/08998280.2023.2231714. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ahsan Zil-E-Ali¹, Lily Laubscher², Islam Kourampi³, Christos Tsagkaris⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Heart and Vascular Institute, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
² Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Department of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁴ European Student Think Tank, Public Health and Policy Working Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Surgery is a cornerstone of modern health care. Medical errors resulting from the clinical treatment of patients are a problem with global relevance. Among "never events," wrong-site surgery accounts for preventable mistakes with a big impact on patients as well as the economy. Wrong-site surgery has many contributing factors, whose identification is challenging. Nevertheless, it remains indisputable that wrong-site surgery affects patients' lives on many levels, ranging from physical disability to mental health. In addition, it aggravates the economic integrity of healthcare systems, healthcare workers' professional standards, and the public's trust in surgical services. Possible solutions for wrong-site surgery include perioperative protocols, surgical checklists, effective communication, education, continuous evaluation of existing procedures, and the implementation of new technology.

Keywords: Medical error; never events; surgery; wrong-site surgery.

Publication types

Editorial