The Joint Commission accredits the nation's hospitals. Seven years after the Joint Commission announced a universal protocol for hospital personnel to follow to reduce the occurrence of wrong site surgery researchers now say the needle has not moved much on the wrong-site surgery meter. In fact, the researchers say the issue may be getting worse.

When families entrust their loved ones to medical personnel in California's hospitals, Californians hope the procedures will improve health matters. Certainly, no one expects medical personnel to make matters worse. While many medical errors can be corrected, other can leave victims of medical malpractice with irreversable injuries or injuries resulting in wrongful death.

In 2004, the Joint Commission announced a universal protocol to reduce the occurrence of wrong-site surgery in America's hospitals. The universal protocol is a set of mandatory rules that hospitals should follow to eliminate wrong-site surgery. Researchers say the number of surgical errors that happen involving wrong-site surgery may be getting worse. Joint commission officials estimate that wrong-site surgery occurs as many as 40 times each week in hospitals and clinics across the country.

Recent examples of wrong site surgeries include a West Coast doctor operating on the wrong eye of a 4-year-old boy in April. In December, a Boston hospital reported three wrong-site spinal surgeries occurring within a two month period. In Rhode Island, one hospital had five wrong-site surgeries in a three-year time frame.

A glaring example produced a multi-million dollar verdict last year in Arkansas. The case involved a 15-year-old boy left psychotic and severely brain damaged when doctors performed brain surgery on the wrong side of the boy's brain.

Wrong-site surgery falls into the broader category of medical error. Medical errors have been receiving greater attention in recent years. A recent Health Affairs study concluded one-third of hospital patients in America are affected by some form of medical error. The federal government has weighed in by launching its Partnership for Patients program intended to reduce medical mistakes.

Mark Chasin is president of the Joint Commission. He says medical errors are on the rise, in part, because time pressures in hospital settings have increased in recent years. The issue of wrong-site surgery "turns out to be more complicated to eradicate than anybody thought," according to Chasin. He says reducing wrong-site surgery involves changing the culture in hospitals.

Source: Washington Post, "The Pain of Wrong Site Surgery," Sandra G. Bookman 20 June 2011