Patients should be included in improving hospital oversight process: advocate
Posted Aug 14, 2013 07:15:04 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – A patient advocacy organization is calling for more patient input into reviewing mistakes made in Nova Scotia that led to a woman receiving an unnecessary mastectomy.
Spokeswoman Alies Maybee of Patients Canada thinks the oversight process at the Capital District Health Authority played a role in a patient having a breast needlessly removed in late March.
The woman had been misdiagnosed with cancer and assigned unnecessary treatment after pathology reports were mistakenly switched between two medical charts.
The mistake was later detected in the lab.
The health authority uses an oversight system that compares processed tissue from before and after a surgery to ensure they are the same.
Maybee says patients should be asked for their input on how to improve the system.
Lawyer Ray Wagner, whose client received the unnecessary mastectomy, says the woman has been experiencing an emotional roller-coaster as a result of the ordeal.
