Florida health officials have ordered a spine surgeon to take additional courses and pay a fine after performing disc replacement surgery on the wrong part of a patient's spine, the Miami Herald reports.
During a total disc replacement procedure on a patient at Crane Creek Surgical Center in Melbourne, Fla., James Billys, MD, performed spinal arthroplasty on C6-7 and C7-T1 rather than the indicated C5-6 and C6-7.
In a March 18 final order from the Florida Board of Medicine, Dr. Billys was ordered to take a continuing medical education course in risk management and perform a lecture on wrong site surgery to the entire medical staff at Brandon Regional Hospital, where he holds privileges.
He was also ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.
It was not reported how the botched procedure affected the patient.