363996594 -Research Plan- Foreign Object Retained After Surgery
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Nov 24, 2024
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Research Plan: Foreign Object Retained After Surgery
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Unintended Retained Foreign Objects (URFOs) After Surgery
Background Information
Foreign Objects Retained After Surgery refer to any surgical bodies that are left inside
the patient’s body after the surgery is over or after the closing and requires that a patient
undergoes another surgical procedure to extract them. Notably, the consequences of these
remains or foreign materials after the surgery manifest in varying forms and in different time
periods, such as after several months, years, or immediately after the operation. It is a
national and significant problem in the US since out of the approximately 28 million surgical
operations performed, there are 1500 cases annually resulting from foreign objects retained
after surgery. Generally, surgery have been perceived to be a challenging activity due to the
increased risk of retaining foreign objects in the patient’s bodies, especially among the obese
patients and those with existing traumas about surgical sponges and retractors. Surgeons and
other physicians ensure there is a safe environment for the patients undergoing the procedure,
although surgeons are not impervious to errors that amount to foreign objects being retained
in the body. The discovery of these objects occurs subject to non-specific complaints, such as
abdominal cavity pain, palpable mass, and frequent infections and are diagnosed or detected
during the routine radiological examinations. Surgical sponges have been found to be the
most common foreign material retained in the patient’s body after operation and is mainly
located in the retroperitoneal, pelvis, and abdomen spaces. Other materials that can be left in
the patient’s body are such as the drains, retractors, electrodes, and clamps mainly in the
abdominal cavity. The present study focuses on establishing or determining the effect of the
retained surgical objects after the operation to the reimbursement of the specific hospital and
doctors since the subject matter pauses a wide range of risks to the patients and to the
financial performance of the hospital. With the rise of digital communication techniques, it is
more likely for an individual patient or their caregivers to use the digital social media
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platforms to address such an occurrence, which can adversely affect the hospitals and
surgeon’s reputation, and negatively affect their reimbursement. The study also focuses on
presenting various ways through which surgeons and hospitals in general can use in reducing
the occurrence of retained foreign objects in patients’ bodies after the surgeries.
Problem Statement
The URFOs are among the rare errors that occur in the surgical field, although they
have significant and adverse effects to the patient, healthcare physicians and hospital in
general. Primarily, they have profound professional and medicolegal consequences to the
specific hospital where these errors occurs and to the healthcare professionals who performed
the operation. URFOs increases the chances of the patient getting readmitted and
hospitalized, which amounts to extra and unintended costs and medical practitioners are more
likely to held accountable directly or indirectly, which may adversely affect their reputation
alongside that of the hospital. The modern health care system is also facing digitization
challenges, with the widespread use of digital platforms and social media, where patients and
family members can post about the condition or about the URFOs where stating the specific
surgeon and hospital that conducted the operation. Such activities amount to hospitals
incurring losses and losing the federal reimbursement and other forms of finances, such as
amount of funds that is spent in solving the legal cases or litigations arising from this
malpractice. The specific hospital can also be liable to catering for the extra charges that the
client incurs after being readmitted or hospitalized to remove the URFOs.
Thus, the URFOs cases continue to be a significant challenge that is adversely
affecting the health care sector as it negatively impacts the quality of care offered in the
surgical field. Patients suffer from a wide range of health problems like having difficulties in
swallowing, eating, breathing, suffering from internal abscess, and contracting infections,
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which affects their health wellbeing adversely. Birolini
et al.
(2016) conducted a study
regarding the effects of URFOs to the patients, surgeons, and the respective hospitals. The
researchers found that the respective hospital was more likely to lose their opportunity of
qualifying for insurance companies and federal government reimbursement when such
surgical errors like URFOs are reported. Thus, the current study is essential as it will help in
determining the correlation of URFOs surgical error occurrence and the respective hospital
losing its chances of securing reimbursement from the insurance companies, federal
government, and from other sponsors. It also aims at providing evidence-based practice on
how surgeons can reduce and prevent the URFOs occurrence during the surgical operations.
Purpose Statement
Primarily, the present study focuses on determining the correlation between the URFOs error
occurrence and reducing the respective hospital’s chances of securing reimbursement from
financial sponsors like the federal government and the insurance companies. Establishing the
connection between the two variables is significant in showing the magnitude of the surgical
errors to the respective surgeons and hospitals, which is essential in stimulating the
development and utilization of evidence-based programs and interventions that can help in
curbing the rising cases of URFOs. In addition, the study delves into establishing the chances
of the URFOs victims being readmitted and the respective hospital or surgeon financing the
resulting extra costs following the litigation orders. It will help in determining the extent to
which hospitals and surgeons incur losses from the patients as a result of URFOs cases. The
study will also use the previous studies to help in formulating and implementing policies,
important in addressing and reducing the URFOs cases. Some of the interventions that will be
evaluated by the study are such as building effective team collaboration among the surgical
staff through developing an effective communication system to prevent and reduce the
URFOs prevalence during the surgical operations. In addition, it will evaluate various
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educational programs that aim at enhancing the surgical team and staff knowledge regarding
how they can prevent or curb the occurrence of URFOs in the most efficient ways. Such
activities will increase the probability of the healthcare settings and hospitals qualifying for
insurance and federal agencies reimbursement.
Research Questions