Need brain surgery? Avoid Rhode Island!

If you’re in need of brain surgery, it might be a good idea to avoid Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Why? Because they’ve already managed to botch three brain surgeries this year.

The hospital, also used as a teaching institution for prestigious Brown University, had these errors despite a new set of explicit operating room procedures being enacted just a few years ago.

In one surgery, an intern cut into the wrong side of a patient’s head, because a pre-op checklist was skipped. In another case, an experienced surgeon insisted to an operating room nurse that he was about to open the correct side of the head - he wasn’t. In the third incident, a chief resident began surgery in the wrong place, and the nurse did not attempt to stop him.

Why are these easily avoidable mistakes still happening, despite additional precautions and procedures? Quite simply, it’s ego and overconfidence. Surgeons don’t like to be questioned or second guessed. Fear of speaking out on the part of the nursing staff contributes to the problem as well.

The state Department of Health issued this statement, “We are extremely concerned about this continuing pattern,” said Dr. David Gifford, director of the state Department of Health. “We have not seen an adequate response in the hospital’s system and protocols since the last order was issued.”

We are extremely concerned about this continuing pattern,” said Dr. David Gifford, director of the state Department of Health, in a statement. “We have not seen an adequate response in the hospital’s system and protocols since the last order was issued.

The hospital was fined $50,000 for the errors, and now it is a rule that all neurosurgical procedures must have an attending physician present for the entire procedure.

• More detailed information on these instances, and previous issues at the Rhode Island Department of Health site.