Hospital Rebuked, Fined After Series of Blunders

Associated Press

November 3, 2009

Rhode Island’s largest hospital was fined $150,000 and ordered to take the extraordinary step of installing video cameras in all its operating rooms after it had its fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007, state health officials said Monday.

Rhode Island Hospital, the teaching hospital for Brown University’s Alpert Medical School, was fined a second time for wrong-site surgeries, state health director David Gifford said. The hospital also was fined $50,000 after brain surgeons operated on the wrong part of the heads of three patients in 2007.

Gifford said his department has issued only two fines, both to Rhode Island Hospital. He sent a letter and order to hospital CEO Timothy Babineau Monday. Babineau said in a statement the hospital was committed to reducing medical errors and had been taking steps to improve patient safety.

But he also requested a meeting with state officials to discuss the sanctions, saying he was disappointed the health department had not incorporated into its order separate recommendations from the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. A hospital spokeswoman, asked to elaborate, said she did not know what those recommendations were.

The latest incident last month involved a patient who was to have surgery on two fingers. Instead, the surgeon performed both operations on the same finger.