About Surgical Ink®
Genesis
Surgical Ink® (SurgInk™), a division of Almin AG, LLC, was founded to establish a systemic process within the medical profession intended to eliminate “wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient” surgical error.
Facts
The danger of wrong site surgical error is present for every individual who contemplates surgical intervention for treatment of a medical or aesthetic condition or those exposed to non-elective surgical intervention in the event of a medical emergency. The USA Today reported that “slicing into the wrong side of bodies and performing surgery on the wrong patients is ‘getting worse,’ according to Dennis O’Leary, who heads the non-profit Joint Commission on Accreditation of health care Organizations.”² The Washington Post reported that “physicians Samuel C. Seiden and Paul Barach estimate that wrong-site surgery occurs between 1,300 and 2,700 times each year in the United States.”³ Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, suggests this figure may be as high as 4,000, making it the third most frequent life-threatening medical error.⁴
Strategy
Several strategies have been put forth, each attempting to address this issue. While the requirements of The Joint Commission in their Universal Protocol For Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery are to varying degrees being addressed, no global standard for addressing these needs has been implemented. Efforts that do exist lack unity and vary from hospital to hospital, and authority to authority. Each hospital, hospital system or free standing outpatient surgical center employs individualized protocols within the guidelines established by The Joint Commission.
When any surgical team member transfers from one surgical facility to another, the protocol used at the new location will likely involve a different, even conflicting protocol, practices and procedures. This lack of continuity is crucial to the problem. A systemic approach must be adopted within the medical community, and recognized by the Joint Commission, which can significantly contribute to the elimination of “wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient” surgery. Surgical Ink’s innovative products precisely address this need.
Solution
Temporary surgical tattoos from Surgical Ink®, the world leader in right-site identification.
1. http://patientsafetyauthority.org/ADVISORIES/AdvisoryLibrary/2007/jun4(2)/documents/29b.pdf
2. Davis, Robert (2006, April 17). 'Wrong site' surgeries on the rise. USA Today, p A1.
3. Boodman, Sandra G. (2006, October 3). Wrong Site Surgery. Washington Post. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
4. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Eliminating serious, preventable, and costly medical errors - never events [online]. 2006 May 18 [cited 2009 February 15]. Available from internet at:http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter1863.