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A Los Angeles County hospital tightened its patient safety procedures after a metal clamp the size of a ballpoint pen was left inside a surgical patient.

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, July 21, 2004

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A Los Angeles County hospital has tightened its patient safety procedures after a metal clamp the size of a ballpoint pen was left inside a surgical patient.

The patient presented to Willowbrook-based Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center last month to be treated for gunshot wounds. Clinicians didn't discover the error until a week later, when the patient came back for a chest X-ray to prepare for more surgery, according to a report by the Associated Press (AP).

Problem: Doctors failed to order a post-surgical X-ray to ensure that no instruments remained in the patient, said John Wallace, a spokesman for the county Department of Health Services.

Clinicians later removed the clamp and said the patient did not suffer any harm.

"In this patient, maybe it didn't cause any harm; the next one might not be so lucky," responds Kenneth Kizer, MD, president of the National Quality Forum.

Los Angeles County has settled four lawsuits In the past three years involving objects left in King Jr./Drew patients after surgery, according to the AP. In one case, a man received $50,000 because a catheter was left inside of him for at least six years.

State and federal inspectors have cited the 233-bed hospital for a pattern of lapses in care, including errors that contributed to the deaths of five patients last year.

However, county health officials have said the hospital has corrected most of the problems identified by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and California's state licensing agency, reports the AP.

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