The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has required mandatory statewide reporting of medical errors since June 2004 Custom Paper
Please comment evaluation of their article and state whether you agree or disagree with their findings.
Piscuss whether you think the article is true experimental, quasi experimental, or non-experimental.You must also
state what type of quantitative design (descriptive, correlational, cross over, etc.)
Cite the article in 6th edition APA format.
Article listed below:
Wrong Site Surgery: Near Misses and Actual Occurrences
The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has required mandatory statewide reporting of medical errors since June
2004. Since this inception, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System has received an average of one wrong
site surgery event report every six days. Earlier research to understand the reasons wrong site surgeries were
occurring resulted in the development of three tools facilities can use to evaluate their system for
vulnerabilities to wrong site surgery. One of these tools is the Wrong-Site Surgery Analysis Form.
This particular article details the results of an analysis of wrong site surgery near misses and actual
occurrences at 97 facilities across Pennsylvania over a one year period. The year-long analysis was conducted
using information provided in the Wrong-Site Surgery Analysis Form. This form provided more detailed information
and assessment of the events leading to the wrong-site surgery occurrence than was offered in the earlier study.
I would consider this article to be non-experimental in design. According to our text, "The primary
difference between nonexperimental and other quantitative designs is that researchers do not actively manipulate
the IV" (Schmidt & Brown, 2012, p. 175). In this case, the IV or surgical patient, did not have one of
the other variables purposely withheld or was subject to surgery with the intention of not following a prescribed
protocol. Again, as noted in the text, "nonexperimental designs are important . . . when it would be
unethical to manipulate the independent variable" (Schmidt & Brown, 2012, p. 175).
After reviewing the designs applicable to quantitative studies, I see a descriptive correlational design being
employed. The bulk analysis of this study is a reflection of the relationship of the variables (i.e. nursing staff
participated in the time out; surgeon participated in time out). Schmidt and Brown define descriptive
correlational design as a way to explain the relationship among the variables or groups using a non-directional
hypothesis. The variables applied in this analysis are taken from the steps involved in following the Universal
Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery as determined by the Joint Commission
(2014). Although some could argue that these known variables – known because their presence has been proven to
prevent wrong-site surgery and therefore they are part of this Universal Protocol – make this a predictive
correlational design. This could be true since the variables could be considered predictors of the outcome if they
were or were not used.
