Cancer-free woman underwent double mastectomy because of lab mix-up

Can you even begin to imagine what this woman is going through? I know we all sometimes complain about JCAHO, snarky lab techs, and having to check things once twice, and three times a specimen. But you read a story like this and it really brings home why we are all so anal retentive.

I’m not the biggest fan of JCAHO (who is, really?) but you hear a story like this and you realize why we need to have an agency that determines performance standards in health care. They actually have some statistics on Sentinel Events that are worth checking out. In 2006 there were 76 wrong site surgeries performed and most of the time the reason was listed as “procedural compliance.” Just something to think about.