Wrong site surgery is a Never Event

Wrong site surgeries have been occurring since operations have been performed. Wrong site surgery is considered a preventable error involving a surgical procedure performed on the wrong patient, wrong body part, and/or wrong side of the body. (Chodruff)

The definition also encompasses patients who are not scheduled for a procedure, procedures which are performed and not scheduled, or those which differ from what was scheduled; in all cases, there is a breakdown in communication, causing the error.

According to Medicare, wrong site surgery is a "Never event". Never events are events that should never happen because when they do occur, they can cause serious injury or death to the patient.

Examples of never events include: Surgery on a wrong body part, Surgery on a wrong patient, wrong surgery on a patient. In most cases, Medicare pays only for items or services that are reasonable and necessary for the treatment of the patients condition, or certain preventive services required by the Medicare law. Medicare does not pay the doctor and the hospital/outpatient surgery center for an erroneous surgery.

National Hospital Week May 10-16, 2009

The week of May 10 - 16, 2009 was designated National Hospital Week to recognize hospitals and the people who work and volunteer at hospitals.

These organizations and individuals play a vital role in our communities and of course, our health. That's why we want you to help us celebrate National Hospital Week by recognizing the good that your hospital has done for you by rating your hospital and nominating a CareStar(tm).

Did You Hear About the Hospital Investigated by the Justice Department?

Have you heard about the woman who collapsed and died after being in the waiting room of a hospital for nearly 24 hours? Further investigation of the hospital by the Department of Justice revealed a pattern of inadequate care, violence and sexual abuse. (Source: Fox News )

It saddens us at WhereToFindCare.com to hear about such a story. We believe everyone should get quality care. It's our hope that users will utilize WhereToFindCare.com as a healthcare research and feedback tool. Search our healthcare provider directory to get user reviews and quality of care information on over 70,000 providers. And if you have recently seen a healthcare provider, please be sure to rate them on our site. The reviews generally take just a few short minutes to complete. You will be helping others in your community make an informed decision. We also encourage healthcare providers to examine user reviews on our site, so you will be helping providers to improve their practice and hopefully prevent this type of event from occurring in the future.

Layoffs Won't Help Satisfy Patients

Many hospitals these days are finding themselves in serious financial situations. Poor economic conditions are resulting in fewer patients and/or lower payments that just don't cover costs. Unfortunately, the first thing hospitals tend to do is cut staff.

Please don't.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. It hurts morale. Poor morale hurts patient satisfaction. Poor patient satisfaction hurts admissions. Nobody wants to hear about layoffs from a stressed-out transportation aide as they're getting wheeled to the OR. Besides, we already wait long enough on hold and get lost in the hallways too many times without rescue.
2. Many areas are already understaffed, causing strains on processes that result in failures and errors.
3. Severance pay is expensive.
4. Should you need the staff back, it is costly to recruit, rehire and re-train.

We've provided some alternatives to cutting staff that hospitals may consider first. We hope staff cuts will be a last resort and only considered after careful analysis and consideration of the long-term consequences.

In the meantime, we'll monitor patient satisfaction scores on WhereToFindCare.com to see if any trends pop up from hospitals who've implemented layoffs.