Welcome

Dear site visitors,

Over two and a half years ago surgical instruments were inadvertently exposed to hydraulic fluid at our two community hospitals. Our interest has always been the safety and welfare of our patients, and we deeply regret this incident. Our ongoing commitment remains to our communities, to our patients, and to their better health. Our patients will always be the top priority for each and every one of us who work for Duke Medicine.

As part of our commitment to the well-being of our patients, and as a quality assurance initiative, Duke provided for an independent follow-up registry to monitor the health of potentially exposed patients. We are now able to report that the results of this registry have been received, compared to expected rates of medical outcomes, and are supportive of our previous belief: that our patients’ health was not impacted by this potential exposure. As before, the results of all reports are made available on this Web site.

We have provided information and resources, including follow-up health evaluations, and will continue to make these available to address our patients’ questions.

Our intent is to continually improve delivery of the high-quality, patient-focused care that our patients expect.

Sincerely,

Michael Cuffe, MD
Vice President for Medical Affairs
Duke University Health System

July 2007

See a November 2006 message from Dr. Cuffe »

See a November 2005 message from Dr. Cuffe »

See a July 2005 message from Dr. Cuffe »