A Coral Gables doctor performed surgery on a patient’s joint. It was the wrong joint
A board certified Coral Gables hand surgeon got fined for doing a 2019 surgery on the right hand (literally), but the wrong joint.
That mistake will cost Dr. Elizabeth Ann Ouellette money (a $5,000 fine and $5,835 in Florida Department of Health case costs) and time (a five-hour continuing medical education course in risk management, a five-hour course in laws, rules and ethics and making a one-hour speech on wrong site surgery to medical staff). That and a letter of concern all were in the settlement agreement approved by Monday’s final order from Florida’s Board of Medicine.
Ouellette has been licensed in Florida since July 18, 1983, board certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery since July 21, 1989 and board certified in the hand specialty subsection since Sept. 10, 1990. Her Florida Department of Health license profile lists staff privileges at Doctors Hospital, Jackson and the University of Miami hospitals and clinics. As a hand surgeon for 40 years, she’s done at least 10,000 procedures.
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Officially, Ouellette neither admits nor denies the allegations in the Florida Department of Health’s administrative complaint. That complaint says she diagnosed her patient, a 60-year-old woman, with “severe post traumatic arthritis” of the first joint on the right index finger above the knuckle. This is the proximal interphalangeal or PIP joint.
She repeated that diagnosis from November 2017 in October 2019 and decided to do an arthrodesis. She did that on Nov. 8, 2019, but did it to the distal interphalangeal joint, the DIP joint or the joint between the PIP joint and the finger tip.
“[Ouellette] failed to pause and confirm to correct surgical/procedure site,” the complaint said. “Post-surgery (the patient) informed [Ouellette] that she had operated on the wrong joint. (The patient) refused further treatment from [Ouellette] and sought corrective treatment from another provider.”
A previous mistake
Ouellette’s Florida Department of Health profile says this is her second wrong-site surgery fine.
In 2002, Ouellette was fined $5,000, assigned the five-hour risk management class and the one-hour speech after doing “trigger release surgery” on a right third finger instead of the right thumb.
That surgery, according to My Health Alberta, is meant to make the finger easier to bend and straighten.
This story was originally published July 23, 2023 at 2:44 PM.
