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Preventing Perioperative ‘Never Events’

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Surgical Patient Care

Abstract

The high-risk nature of certain adverse events resulting from medical error occurring during the perioperative period can result in such serious harm to patients that they are labeled “Never Events.” This chapter provides an overview of the many different types of surgical Never Events and offers preventive strategies.

“Errors will be made, but it is from our mistakes, if we pursue them into the open instead of obscuring them, that we learn the most”

—Harvey Cushing, New England Otological and Laryngological Society, 1920, 156, p. 210.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiac Surgery Consultation, 6502 Overbrook Street, Falls Church, VA, 22043, USA

    Patricia C. Seifert RN, MSN, CNOR, FAAN

  2. Department of Surgery, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, 3300 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA, 22042, USA

    Paula R. Graling DNP, RN, CNOR, FAAN

  3. Department of Surgery, Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety & Quality, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Juan A. Sanchez MD, MPA

Authors
  1. Patricia C. Seifert RN, MSN, CNOR, FAAN
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  2. Paula R. Graling DNP, RN, CNOR, FAAN
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  3. Juan A. Sanchez MD, MPA
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia C. Seifert RN, MSN, CNOR, FAAN .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety & Quality, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Juan A. Sanchez

  2. Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation and Kyle John Rymiszewski Research Scholar, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA

    Paul Barach

  3. Department of Surgery Center for Healthcare Studies Institute for Public Health and Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Julie K. Johnson

  4. Division of Cardiovascular Surgery Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA

    Jeffrey P. Jacobs

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Seifert, P.C., Graling, P.R., Sanchez, J.A. (2017). Preventing Perioperative ‘Never Events’. In: Sanchez, J., Barach, P., Johnson, J., Jacobs, J. (eds) Surgical Patient Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44010-1_26

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