A Florida doctor finished placing a catheter. Then, he was told that wasn’t his patient
A Naples doctor who is board certified in radiology finished a catheter placement — then learned he had done the procedure on the wrong patient. That’s in the Florida Department of Health administrative complaint filed in September against ProScan Imaging’s Dr. Scott Peterson.
Administrative complaints start the process that can end in discipline from the state Board of Medicine.
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Peterson has been licensed in Florida since August 2000, according to the Department of Health’s online license profile, with no previous disciplinary cases. A hospital spokesperson said he still has privileges with Naples Comprehensive Health, which was Naples Community Hospital on May 5, 2021.
Two patients came in that day, the complaint said, for “CT-guided” procedures.
“The term “computed tomography” or “CT” refers to a computerized X-ray imaging procedure in which a narrow beam of X-ray is aimed at a patient and quickly rotated around the body, producing signals that are processed by the machine’s computer to generate cross-sectional images, or “slices,” the National Institute of Health says. “These slices are called ‘tomographic images’ and can give a clinician more detailed information than conventional X-rays.”
Peterson’s patient came for a “CT-guided placement of a suprapubic drain.”
The National Library of Medicine explains that “a suprapubic catheter (tube) drains urine from your bladder. It is inserted into your bladder through a small hole in your lower belly.”
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A patient of another doctor came in for a “CT-guided aspiration of abnormal collection in the region of the gallbladder fossa.”
The gallbladder fossa is the area of the liver in which the gallbladder sits. During a CT guided aspiration, Iowa’s Mercy Medical Center explains, a radiologist uses CT imaging to insert a thin needle and get out tissue or fluid from an area.
Peterson, the complaint said, placed the suprapubic drain in the other doctor’s patient, who was just supposed to get the stuff in his gallbladder fossa area excised for checking.
Peterson “was then notified that his patent was ready for the suprapubic drain procedure,” the complaint said.
