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Safer Surgeries
Hospitals hope rules stop surgery mix-ups
Starting July 1, operating rooms are supposed to be a little safer: Surgical teams must take new steps to prevent operating on the wrong body part or wrong patient.
Among the requirements: Much as airline pilots go through a safety checklist before takeoff, surgeons and nurses must take what's being dubbed a "timeout" before cutting. It's to double-check that the right patient is on the table, if he's really to lose a kidney and not a gallbladder — and if so, on which side.
Hospital regulators hope the new rules will finally put an end to growing reports of wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-patient surgeries.
The problem being addressed isn't wrong surgery because of a misdiagnosis, but mix-ups inside the operating room. In one infamous 1995 case, a doctor amputated Willie King's wrong foot; indeed, the mix-ups are thought to be most frequent in orthopedic surgery.
Read article in full at:
http://www.courier-journal.com/features
/health/2004/06/G3-surgeries0624-5504.html
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