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Surgery mistakes may prove costly for state doctors

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, July 19, 2005

Florida's state medical board is pushing for stricter penalties for surgeons who operate on the wrong patient or wrong body part, also know as "wrong-site" surgeries.

Florida made an effort in 2001 to reduce the number of wrong-site surgeries by increasing penalties for the mistakes, and this past April, the Florida Board of Medicine disciplined nine doctors for wrong-site errors, fining the surgeons $10,000 or $20,000, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

As of July 1, 38 doctors were fined, up from 36 the prior year.

"These are totally preventable mistakes, and most of them are the doctor's fault," said Dr. Nabil El Sanadi, the board's vice chair and emergency room chief at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, according to the Sun-Sentinel. "They're not getting it. The board is frustrated. We have to ask, what else can we do?"

The board is weighing whether to raise fines or even suspend the licenses of surgeons performing the incorrect surgeries.

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