Never Events Continue to Occur

The medical industry has termed events that should not happen "never events". Examples of these incidents include wrong site  surgery, wrong patient  surgery, etc. A study in the recently published Archives of Surgery found despite use of the Universal Protocol, a standardized  checklist specifically designed to prevent such occurrences, they continue to occur and may even be on the rise. The authors concluded a "persisting high frequency of surgical "never events". Strict adherence to the Universal Protocol must be expanded to nonsurgical specialties to promote a zero-tolerance philosophy for these preventable incidents."