Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Lawyers’ Blog

Retained Foreign Object Cases Remain A Patient Safety Risk

The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) accredits and certifies more than 15,000 hospitals and other healthcare organizations in the United States.  Its mission is to improve the safety and quality of care patients receive at these entities.  It tracks "sentinel events," which it defines as "an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof."  Such events are called "sentinel" because they signal the need for immediate investigation and response.

One type of sentinel event that JCAHO tracks are retained foreign objects.  Retained foreign objects are surgical items left in patients following surgery.  Estimates indicated that surgical items are left in 1,500 people per year in the United States, including surgical sponges, surgical towels, and surgical instruments such as clamps and retractors.  These items are most often left in the abdomen or pelvis (54% of the cases), the vagina (29%) and the thorax (7%).  Mortality rates resulting from the unintended retention of foreign objects are as high as 11% to 35%.  In virtually all cases, the patient is required to undergo a second (needless) operation to have the foreign object removed.

The JCAHO has issued strategies in an effort to prevent, or at least reduce, the occurrence of retained foreign object events.  Hopefully, the implementation of these strategies, and dilgence by health care providers in the operating room, will
increase patient safety.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of a retained foreign object, and you like to know more about your legal rights, the attorneys at Shevlin Smith would be happy to speak with you.

529 Medical Errors Reported in the District of Columbia In One Year

Unless you or a loved one has been a victim of medical negligence, you have probably never given much thought to how often medical negligence occurs.  You probably have never considered how preventable the medical negligence was.  The Washington, D.C.'s Department of Health's annual report sheds light on those issues.

The city's Department of Health reported that for the 12 months between July 2007 and June 2008, there were 529 "adverse events" in District of Columbia hospitals and clinics.  At least 14 of these errors resulted in the death of the patient.

The underlying nature of the adverse errors was alarming.  At least seven people died because they were given the wrong medicine or given the wrong dose of medication.  Another adverse event involved surgery performed on the wrong breast of a woman.  Another involved the death of patient who, while in respiratory distress, was hooked up to a ventilator that was broken.

Sadly, the 529 adverse events are probably an understatement of the number of actual medical errors that occurred during the reported 12-month period.  Only 10 of the District's 15 hospitals participated in the report, and only two of the District's 21 nursing homes reported.

So, the next time you hear about a medical malpractice case that has been filed, don't be so quick to judge it as frivolous. Ask questions about its underlying facts.  You might be surprised just how preventable the medical error was and how needless a patient's death or injury was.