conversation with a straightforward question: Why do surgical errors
keep happening? The answer, it seems, is a bit complicated.
Culture clash
A pair of recent studies grabbed national headlines by claiming medical
care gone wrong kills either 250,000 or 450,000 people each year,
depending on which researchers you believe, making it the third lead-
ing cause of death — behind only cancer and heart disease — in the
United States. Some questioned the evidence and debated which esti-
mate is more accurate. What difference does it
make? There's only one number that matters.
"It should be zero," says Sue McWilliams,
RN, MSN, of the Northern Arizona School of
Nursing in Flagstaff and an advisor to
CaimpaignZero, an advocacy group dedicated
to preventing the medical errors that cause
patient harm.
Ms. McWilliams spent some time as a surgi-
cal nurse during her 30-year career in health
care. Nine months, to be exact. It was the
stress of the OR that drove her to follow her
passion in more relaxed clinical settings.
Does the pressure-cooker environment of
the OR put undue strain on the surgical team,
forcing them to keep patients moving through
the facility instead of focusing on the one
who's on the table? Does the lashing out of
stressed-out surgeons distract cowering nurs-
es and techs from protecting patients?
Yes, perhaps a surgical team who's constant-
J a n u a r y 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 2 3
A Year of
Safety-Centered
Content
Over the next 12
months, we'll
present ways to
protect patients
from avoidable
harm. up next in
February: Drilling
down to the root
causes of surgical
errors.
SURGICAL
ERRORS