Boston Patients Undergo Wrong-Site Spinal Surgery
Boston Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reported medical malpractice during surgeries on three different patients who underwent spinal surgery, two of which were performed by the same surgeon.
According to reports between 2006 and 2008, 11 spine surgery errors occurred in Boston, resulting in additional back surgery for most of the patients affected.
Site-operating errors are surprisingly common during back surgery, and often go unnoticed until a patient complains of lingering pain or a routine X-ray identifies that the incorrect vertebrae was operated on.
Beth Israel senior vice president of health care quality, Dr. Kenneth Sands said the mistakes were not connected and that the hospital has since improved its procedures, adopting a procedural checklist, and hired an expert to review spine surgeries. Even so said Sands, "it's still possible to make a human error.''
The full article is featured in the Boston Globe: Beth Israel erred in 3 spinal operations
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