Innovations in surgery — like minimally invasive robotic surgery for prostate cancer — may put patients at risk for medical errors, according to research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Researchers used Patient Safety Indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to analyze provider performance and potential in-hospital adverse events for patients undergoing minimally invasive radical prostatectomies from 2003 through 2009. They found that the risk of patient harm increased two-fold in 2006, a year in which many teaching hospitals started using minimally invasive robotic surgery for prostate cancer. That year, minimally invasive radical prostatectomies equaled or exceeded 10 percent of all cases.
"The study looked at…how the rapid adoption of a new surgical technology…can lead to adverse events for patients," Kellogg Parsons, MD, MHS, a surgical oncologist in the UC San Diego Health System and the study's lead author, said in a news release. "There is a real need for standardized training programs, rules governing surgeon competence and credentialing, and guidelines for hospital privileging when novel technologies reach the operating rooms of teaching and community hospitals."
Christopher Kane, MD, a professor of surgery and interim chair of the department of surgery at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, noted this phenomenon is not unique to robotic surgery. "Whenever a new technology is adopted there is a temporary period where there may be an increased risk to the patient. This can be reduced by extensive surgical training, vigorous credentialing standards and extended mentorship by experienced surgeons," he said in the release.
The report, published in JAMA Surgery, encourages the refinement of the processes by which surgical innovations disseminate into clinical practice.
More Articles on Clinical Quality:
Giving the Gift of Silence: How 'Quiet Kits' are Revolutionizing the Patient Experience
Boston Medical Center Reduces Cardiac Unit Alarms by 89%: Here's How They Did It
4 Solutions for Slow OR Throughput