Blogging The News 4 U: Report: Mercy Medical Center facing penalties after leaving sponge in patient

Helen M. French shared a link.

INCORRECT COUNT issues i.e. a Sponge left in a patient: Another "FAILURE" as I call all "medical mistakes"! This is a "FAILURE" to "FOLLOW" the "COUNTING" policy and procedure of one's facility as well as the "recommendations of the "national operating room organization" standards put out by AORN (Association of periOperative Registered Nurses) .....SEE: AORN's "Guidelines for Perioperative Practice", which are updated every year and which can be purchased in "book form" or on a DISC...these guidelines are to "provide safe perioperative patient care and achieve workplace safety".....PS: AORN’s recommendations cover most of the many items to be counted: "which" layers and which "cavities" one is to perform "extra counts” on i.e. One example is the "UTERUS" i.e. when closing the "UTERUS" after a C-section, a count has to be performed before, the “uterus” is closed and of course, the additional layers after that and of course, the FINAL count i.e. the SKIN “FINAL” count....ALL counts are to be recorded from the "beginning of a case to the end of the case on an 'ERASE" Board or on a "Paper Count Sheet" etc. Hmmm, often over the years, I have seen "math" mistakes (failure) or a "countable item" NOT being placed (failure) on the "erase board or on the paper count sheet. Often, if team- work is not being observed, or an item is not noted during a staff change, or IF the "facility is not "utilizing" an OR RN Circulator, i.e. a state licensed staffer…..”items” do not get counted….thus, IF any staffer DOES NOT KNOW that there are more items added, then these “ITEMS” will get missed and they are left in a patient. Many facilities are allowing "techs to count with techs" who are "unlicensed staffers"....AND then there is "verbiage" which circumvents the “RN to Tech" policy count verbiage" by stating....As long as there is a RN, somewhere, therefore, unlicensed staffers can "count" with each other? COUNTS, depending what type of procedure is being done, can include: "instruments in pans, suture with needles, "loose" needles, 4x4 sponges, LAP sponges, neuro patties, neuro clips, eye sponges, all extra instruments added, ETC, ETC. Sponges called 4x4's and especially the LAP sponges, when LEFT in a patient's body, “ROT” and then become intermeshed into whatever tissue/organ they remain and can result in massive adhesions. The danger of an “instrument” being left in a patient is that the metal instrument can possibly perforate one of a patient’s “organs” (this is a short synopsis of counts)... My opinions, as an operating room RN scrub and operating room RN circulator for decades which also included 20 years in the OR arena at UVA, a Trauma Level 1 Teaching Hospital. (PS: the surgeons usually do not count since they are busy "operating" on the patient....The "COUNTs" are the JOB ROLE of the "scrub tech and the RN Circulator" or whomever is designated as circulating nowadays? ....Blessings, frenchie i.e. Helen M French BSN, RN, an operating room nurse to whom ALL life is precious. (AGAIN, an incorrect count is a FAILURE....not a mistake. It is the “FAILURE” of staffers to meticulously follow the COUNT P&Ps of one’s facility and/or AORN's recommendations.......“FAILURES” in our USA Health care system which cause the yearly deaths of “440,000+ patients just due to medical mistakes I.E. 36,000 per month I.E. 1,200 per day”, I.E. are the "third leading cause of death" in the USA, an issue validated by Senator Sander's 2014 Senate Hearing on Medical Mistakes. I feel he dropped the ball on the issue.
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Report: Mercy Medical Center facing penalties after leaving sponge in patient by Haleigh PikeFriday, February 8th 2019
REDDING, Calif. — Mercy Medical Center in Redding is facing more than $40,000 in penalties after the Public Health Department says a surgical sponge was left in a patients abdomen leading to their death.
According to the Health Department, the patient went to the hospital for surgery to bypass diseased large blood vessels in the abdomen and groin.
Following the surgery, the patient wound up back in the hospital because their heart stopped. An X-ray revealed a sponge in their abdomen.
An autopsy revealed the patient died from an inflammation of tissue in the abdomen generally caused by bacteria.
Public Heath conducted a series of interviews and ultimately decided to fine Mercy $47,500.

This is the second time Mercy Medical Center has been given a penalty like this.
You can read the full report here:
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/…/Mercy-MC-Redding-Redacted-POC_ADA…