Surgical errors happen during various types of surgery, including minor and major. These errors can occur during minimally invasive surgery, robotic surgery, and any other kind of surgery in a hospital operating room. Here are just some of the ways surgical errors can occur during a surgical procedure.
Surgery errors are a serious issue. When you entrust your care to a healthcare facility, you trust that they will do their best to improve your health. You might expect surgical facilities to do a relatively thorough job of screening their doctors, nurses, and support staff before any procedures.
Unfortunately, surgical errors are all too common. Some result from a surgeon's incompetence, but most result from poor planning or failure to properly communicate with a patient's family and the patient. These communication errors can lead to injury, medical bills, stress, and even death, which can significantly impact a person's life.
A significant number of injuries are due to surgical errors every year. Some of these injuries may go unreported, and there may not be an accurate way to distinguish between accidents and surgical errors. The numbers are probably relatively high; mismatched data or human error may account for some of the misreporting.
Usually, the causes of surgical errors are:
- Fatigue
- Lack of sleep
- Stress
These causes can be reduced by actively pursuing healthy lifestyles and allowing sufficient time to rest before the surgery.
Patient safety is a top priority in the medical industry, especially if a patient is hurt due to a mistake on the part of a practitioner. Mistakes can happen due to several reasons, including the following:
Doctors and other health practitioners often follow standard procedures before, during, and at the end of a medical process. However, suppose a practitioner doesn't get the patient's complete medical history, including how they reacted to certain medications and the results, including possible side effects, of prior surgeries and procedures. In that case, they may miss important information that could impact the patient's safety.
Another example could be when one person in the medical team doesn't identify themselves to the patient or misidentifies them, which could lead them to operate on the wrong person.
Doctors and medical staff often suffer from fatigue and can find themselves overworked. This fatigue can lead to an almost intoxicated state that affects judgment and motor skills and could lead to a lapse in behavior and critical thinking.
Medical staff performing surgical procedures often neglect to properly sanitize their equipment or use equipment that is less well-suited for the procedure. This is dangerous for the patient but also for the reputation of the hospital, which seriously affects revenue.
The sad truth is that surgical errors are often the result of incompetencethe surgeon lacks the skills or experience to operate safely and competently.
