The state Department of Health amended the Rhode Island Hospital with a $50,000 fine on Monday for its third wrong-side surgery performed this year. This time, an 82-year-old patient in the neurological intense care unit was involved.

The incident happened on Friday when the chief resident began drilling the right side of the patient’s head while a CT scan showed bleeding on the left side. The resident realized his mistake soon, closed the initial incision and moved on the left side. The patient was listed in fair condition yesterday.

"We are extremely concerned about this continuing pattern. While the hospital has made improvements in the operating room, they have not extended these changes to the rest of the hospital," director of Health David R. Gifford said in a written statement, according to the Associated Press.

This incident followed another happened in February, when another patient was performed neurosurgery on the wrong side as well, Andrea Bagnall-Degos, representative of the health department said. Gladly, the patient recovered very well.

The third incident happened in July ended with the patient’s death. Neurosurgeon J. Frederick Harrington did not check the CT scan and drilled in the wrong side of the patient’s head. Soon after he realized the error, he closed and moved on the right side of the head. However, the patient died a few days later.

The state medical examiner did not find any connection between the surgical error and the patient death. In fact, no cause of death has been determined yet. The surgeon had lost his practice at Rhode Island for 10 weeks and he was forbidden to work there. After his license was restored, he never worked for the hospital again.

Following this incident, the state Department of Health ordered the hospital on August 2, to take a series of measures to make sure this mistake would not happen again and also a review of the inside neurosurgery practices and a better verification from doctors of surgery plans.

"We are committed to continuing to evaluate and implement changes to our policies to help ensure these human errors are caught before they reach the patient," said a statement issued by the Rhode Island Hospital.

The name of the surgeon who performed the surgery on Friday has not been released by both Rhode Island Hospital and the Health Department.

Rhode Island Hospital has 15 days to file a plan of correction with the Health Department in Friday’s incident.

The Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline and Board of Nursing is also investigating the incident.