There’s not much information about the patient whose kidney was removed by mistake at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass. several weeks ago, but statements from the hospital and the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH) raise serious questions about the disastrous mistake.(RELATED: Oops? Surgeon Removes Wrong Patient’s Kidney)
St. Vincent Hospital released a statement saying a physician not connected with the hospital scheduled a kidney surgery for a patient who didn’t need it. The case was first reported by the Worcester Telegram.
“This is a deeply unfortunate situation involving patient misidentification that took place outside of our hospital and did not involve our employees,” a hospital spokesperson said in a statement.
The hospital told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the mistake “was a misidentification of the patient.”
“Following notification of the incident by the hospital, DPH initiated an investigation, in line with our state and federal authority,” Scott Zoback, spokesman for the DPH said in a statement.
“This investigation is active and ongoing. Staff from the Department will continue to investigate, including to determine whether the hospital had developed, implemented and followed appropriate procedures to protect patients under its care,” Zoback said. Zoback said the hospital reported the incident appropriately.
“This is something awfully bizarre,”malpractice attorney Dr. Larry Schlachter told TheDCNF. “It’s the wrong surgery on the wrong patient, and there needs to be a full investigation.”
Schlachter, who was a brain surgeon before becoming an attorney and will soon release a book about surgical malpractice in the U.S., questions whether the hospital is truly without fault. It is standard surgical practice, for instance, that surgeons ask a patient to verify who they are and what surgery they are having.
The Joint Commission, a national hospital accreditation board, recommends a “time out” before all surgeries to avoid operating on the wrong person, or the wrong part of the body. “The purpose of the time-out is to conduct a final assessment that the correct patient, site, and procedure are identified,” the Joint Commission states in their National Patient Safety Goals for 2016.
“This is clearly something that is never supposed to happen, ever,” Schlachter said. “It’s an incredible screw up that not only involves the system, but most likely involves people.”
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