MINNEAPOLIS, March 19, 2008—The well-publicized mistake of removing the wrong kidney from a cancer patient at Methodist Hospital last week has shone a media spotlight on the efforts of state hospitals and providers to make "never events" a thing of the past.

Nancy Jaeckels, Director of Education for the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI), explained on Minnesota Public Radio's "All Things Considered" on Tuesday how ICSI works with hospitals to research and reduce medical errors.

Audio of her interview may be heard at this link.

Josephine Marcotty, who wrote the original article about the kidney error, returned to the subject in today's Star Tribune in a report written with reporter Maura Lerner, entitled "How can errors be found before surgery begins?" 

Minnesota hospitals have struggled for years to eliminate surgical errors. But the effort has been frustrating because even though they make progress tightening protocols in one area, a gap may open up in an area no one thought of.

In the Methodist Hospital case, the mistake happened because weeks before the patient was rolled into the surgery suite, the wrong kidney was labeled in the medical record as being cancerous.

University of Minnesota psychologist Kathleen Harder was quoted saying that hospitals will continue to get better at avoiding mistakes like this one, but that human error can never be completely eliminated.

"This is an event that points out how complicated wrong-site surgeries can be," said Diane Rydrych, assistant director of healthy policy at the Minnesota Department of Health. "There are a lot of steps that have to happen correctly, and errors can occur at any time."

Complete Star Tribune article