[healthenclave]

This is a common problem in medicine. As some one who regularly prescribes xray to patients (in Orthopedic Surgery) we have very strict instructions to the radiology technicians to perform the imaging of the side that is mentioned in the orders. Due to a variety of reasons. But we sometimes do make mistakes.

But like the author describes doing the same mistake is the OR and performing a surgery is a disaster of several magnitudes. One of the common problem is that many times senior consultants have limited contact with the patients and their sole focus is doing surgeries. Usually residents and the younger docs are involved in the preoperative care of the patient.