Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2014 | Editorial
Current challenges and future perspectives for patient safety in surgery
Authors:
Philip F Stahel, Cyril Mauffrey, Nathan Butler
Published in:
Patient Safety in Surgery
|
Issue 1/2014
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Excerpt
As surgeons, we are arguably practitioners of one of the most entitled, rewarded and rewarding occupations in the world. We are privileged to meet and interact with previously unknown individuals on a most intimate and personal level, and to make a positive difference at some of the worst times in their lives. We eventually know these people in ways they cannot know themselves, and we are able help them in ways they cannot help themselves. We are empowered to the completely legal action of putting a knife to work in a human body. With proper indication and distinguished technical skills, our surgical blade can provide a cure for acute and chronic ailments in the most vulnerable population of human beings. In return, our patients reward us with their unlimited trust in our knowledge, skills, and ability to deliver them to restored health and an improved quality of life. Unfortunately, we fail to restore our patients’ health and quality of life more often than we appreciate. While all physicians take the Hippocratic Oath to abstain from doing harm (
”Primum non nocere”), our patients are frequently caught in the ‘friendly fire’ of surgical care – health care providers causing unintentional harm when their only intent was to help [
1,
2]. …
