State reprimands Providence hospital for surgical error

The Rhode Island Health Department has reprimanded Providence-based Miriam Hospital, after identifying a confluence of missteps that led a surgical team to operate on the wrong knee of a patient undergoing elective surgery. The staff failed to look for the surgeon's mark on the patient's skin, the "yes" that indicated which side needed surgery. But there were other problems as well, including marking surgical sites with ink that sometimes rubs off and failing to verify the surgical site against the original source of information.