Owen Sound Hospital Officials quickly moving forward to let patients know if they are affected by the mis-diagnoses of one of the Hospitals Pathologists.
Grey Bruce Health Service President and CEO Pat Campbell says about 6 per cent of Dr. Barry Sawka’s 600 recent cases are suspect but they will re-examine every one of the cases to make sure of their accuracy.
She now says they will be contacting the patients who may have received an incorrect diagnoses as quickly as possible.
Hospital Chief of Staff Don Eby says that rate of 6 per cent works out to about 37 patients but closer examination of Dr. Sawka’s work is needed to determine which diagnoses may be incorrect.
Pat Campbell says they moved quickly on this so as to try and reduce the stress and anxiety that some patients may be feeling over whether or not they are included in the review or are excluded from the review.
She says once the review is completed they will be issuing amended reports and diagnoses if necessary that will be then passed on to the patients physicians.
Campbell says the hospital stands behind to two remaining Pathologists at the hospital and are very confident in the quality of their work.
In fact she says that even in the work of Dr. Sawka 94 per cent of his cases will be confirmed as originally diagnosed.
Since Dr. Sawka started at the hospital in 1994, he has evaluated approximately 40 thousand cases.
Campbell says no decision has been made yet whether any of those cases will be re-examined.
Hospital officials say they are not aware of any deaths as a result of the errors.
Campbell says if patients want to find out if they case is being reviewed, they can call hospital at 1- 888-525-0553
