Foreign Object Retention
Here is an article about foreign objects being retained in surgery patients. The article is published by The Doctor's Company, a professional liability insurer for physicians.
An excerpt: "From 1985 to 1998, the incidence of objects being left within surgical patients has occurred at a steady rate of more than 40 per year. Specifically, 601 such cases have involved hospitals, surgical clinics, and physicians insured by The Doctors Company during that time period. The incidents have encompassed all medical specialties, and the variety of retained foreign bodies has included 4x4 and laparotomy sponges, needles, hemostats, broken or dislodged pieces of equipment—even a towel."
Those numbers must be just for that company. We see more than one such case a year in our practice in Nashville.
Another excerpt, this time a shot at the other personnel in the OR: "It is acknowledged by medical professionals that the operating surgeon should not be responsible for maintaining an account of objects that are admitted to or removed from the operative field. That responsibility belongs to the medical facility where the procedure is performed and to its employees, the circulating and scrub nurse." I wonder: does that go for the towel, too?
One last point. The article goes on to explain that "[t]o help protect themselves from liability, prudent surgeons should adopt three preventive measures." Note the mindset. The surgeons should take these actions not to protect patients but to protect themselves. Hmmm.