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Outcome of 6 years of protocol use for preventing wrong site office surgery
John Starling1, Brett M Coldiron2
1Skin Cancer Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Background:
Patient safety is emerging as an integral part of the overall strategy to improve health care in the United States. Wrong site surgery is correctly noted to be a sentinel event and great efforts must be made to avoid it.
Objective:
We sought to determine the incidence of wrong site surgery after implementation of a preoperative protocol in patients presenting for treatment of skin cancer at a high-volume, Joint Commission-accredited, tertiary referral center for dermatologic surgery.
Methods:
A retrospective chart review was performed of 7983 cases performed on patients presenting for treatment of skin cancer in the office setting.
Results:
There were no cases of wrong site surgery. There were, however, 18 cases of failure to identify the original biopsy site (cancer site).
Limitations:
This was a retrospective study done at one cancer center.
Conclusion:
Integration of a correct surgery site protocol into a daily patient care model is a useful step in preventing occurrences of wrong site dermatologic surgery.