In the July issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine an article entitled Anatomy of a Surgical Error indicates 40 “wrong site” surgical errors are committed in the US per week, which translates to 2,080 patients per year. There is literally no excuse for this.
We perform our surgeries at a fully accreted out patient center- Newport Beach Center for surgery. The credo is patient safety and satisfaction. To prevent errors it is our custom and practice to conduct a “surgical pause” before we begin surgery on any patient. The pause identifies the patient, the diagnosis, the proposed procedure, and surgical site. The circulating nurse, anesthesiologist, surgical assistant, scrub nurse, and surgeon must all conquer before the surgery begins. This effort at patient safety has been fail safe for the entire history of Newport Beach Center for Surgery.
-George Brennan M.D. F.A.C.S.
