Surgical errors are a type of medical error and include retained foreign bodies, mislabeled surgical specimens, and wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient errors (WSPEs). An analysis of these errors over the last few decades has revealed their cause is often multifactorial.
Common Surgical Errors
Unnecessary or inappropriate surgeries. Anesthesia mistakes, such as using too much or not being mindful of a patient's allergies. Cutting an organ or another part of the body by mistake. Instruments and other foreign objects left inside patients.
A few of the most common types of medical errors include: medication errors, errors related to anesthesia, hospital acquired infections, missed or delayed diagnosis, avoidable delay in treatment, inadequate follow-up after treatment, inadequate monitoring after a procedure, failure to act on test results, failure to ...
The guidelines also recommend regularly cleaning and maintaining the operating theatre environment. This is mainly for patient safety, to reduce the risks of infection. But it can also contribute to staff safety. Promptly cleaning any fluids spilled on the floor makes it less likely that anyone will slip and fall.
Wrong-site surgery may involve operating on the wrong side, as in the case of a patient who had the right side of her vulva removed when the cancerous lesion was on the left, or the incorrect body site.
A surgical error is an unintentional, preventable injury occurring in the perioperative period that is not considered a known acceptable risk of surgery and could have been avoided by following appropriate procedure-specific training protocols.
2.1 Physical risk factors. Physical factors take an important place in healthcare institutions. Primary physical factors affecting work in operating rooms can be listed as temperature, noise, lighting, humidity, air-conditioning, air pollutants, ionizing radiation, non-ergonomic work conditions etc.
12 Rules of the Operating Room • The Circulating Life.
The three basic rules for personal safety are:
Stay alert and be aware of your surroundings. Give the impression that you are calm, confident and know where you are going. Trust your instincts.
There are two major types of errors: Errors of omission occur as a result of actions not taken. Examples are not strapping a patient into a wheelchair or not stabilizing a gurney prior to patient transfer. Errors of the commission occur as a result of the wrong action taken.
Practice Good Communication
This can cause a breakdown in communication, leading to medical errors. Thus, communication is the first step in preventing medical errors. Practical Quick Tip: Limit distractions when taking orders, providing reports, administering medications, or performing procedures.
Common sources of error include instrumental, environmental, procedural, and human. All of these errors can be either random or systematic depending on how they affect the results. Instrumental error happens when the instruments being used are inaccurate, such as a balance that does not work (SF Fig. 1.4).
Foreign Objects Left in a Patient
Shockingly, one of the most common types of surgical errors is leaving foreign objects in a patient after surgery. A foreign object left behind can include anything from clamps to surgical sponges to gauze.
Distraction can result from both intrinsic sources, including alarms, noise from surgical devices, shift changes, and necessary communications, as well as extrinsic sources such as cell phones, beepers, computers and personal electronic devices, calls from outside the OR, communication that is not relevant to the case, ...
In general, hybrid, integrated or digital operating rooms all share the common goal of improving safety to positively impact patient outcomes and simplifying workflows for the surgeon and surgical team.
The hands-free technique is a work practice whereby no two members of the surgical team handle the same sharp item at the same time. When the hands-free technique is implemented, sharp items are not passed hand to hand between surgeons, residents, scrub personnel, and circulating personnel.
Every operating room requires two people to staff it: a registered nurse to circulate and another staff member to pass the instruments, sutures, and whatever is needed by the surgeon for the procedure. This person can be a nurse or a scrub technician.
A poor diet, high blood pressure and cholesterol, stress, smoking and obesity are factors shaped by your lifestyle and can be improved through behavior modifications. Risk factors that cannot be controlled include family history, age and gender.