The Surgical Safety Checklist helps keep patients safe and ensures that all the necessary steps are taken before, during, and after surgery.
When it comes to something as important as surgery, making sure everything goes smoothly is crucial. That’s why medical professionals use the Surgical Safety Checklist. Let’s explore what this checklist is all about and how it’s making a positive impact in South Carolina and around the world.
What is the Surgical Safety Checklist?
A Surgical Safety Checklist is like a to-do list for doctors, nurses, and other medical staff involved in a specific surgery. Just like you might use a checklist to remember what to pack for a trip, medical teams use this checklist to make sure they’re doing everything they can to keep patients safe during surgery. It includes important steps and things to check before surgery starts, during the surgery, and before the patient leaves the operating room.
Why is the Surgical Safety Checklist Important?
Imagine building a model airplane. You wouldn’t just start building without a plan, right? In the same way, doctors and nurses need a plan to make sure they’re doing everything right during surgery. The Surgical Safety Checklist helps them remember all the important steps, like making sure they have the right patient and the right body part, checking that all the equipment is ready, and making sure everyone in the room knows what’s happening.
Implementation in South Carolina
In South Carolina, hospitals and surgical centers are using the Surgical Safety Checklist to make surgeries even safer. This checklist has become standard practice in many medical facilities. When doctors and nurses follow the checklist, it reduces the chances of mistakes happening during surgery. This means better outcomes for patients and fewer complications after surgery.
Here’s an example. An operating room employee in SC noticed an expired date on an artificial ocular lens implant, just before a cataract surgery was to begin. No one checked the expiration date until 20 minutes before surgery.
Lorri Gibbons, vice president of quality and safety for the SC Hospital Association said, “If the expired implant had been used, the patient may have developed an infection and would have needed another surgery to replace the artificial lens.”
Gibbons said using the 19-point “Surgical Safety Checklist” prevented the dangerous mistake from being made. “They caught it just in time…This (checklist) has become such a good communication tool.” (The Post and Courier)
Global Impact of the Surgical Safety Checklist
The Surgical Safety Checklist isn’t just popular in South Carolina; it’s used all around the world. Medical professionals everywhere have realized how important it is to have a set of steps to follow to ensure patient safety. Countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have also adopted this checklist as a standard procedure. It’s like a universal language that doctors and nurses can use to communicate and make sure everything is on track.
How Does the Surgical Safety Checklist Work?
- Before Surgery Starts:
Medical staff confirm the patient’s identity, the type of surgery, and any allergies the patient might have. They also make sure all the necessary equipment is ready.
- During Surgery:
The checklist helps the team communicate important updates during surgery. They check if the patient is positioned correctly, if the right body part is being operated on, and if any unexpected problems are happening.
- Before the Patient Leaves the Operating Room:
The team ensures that all steps of the surgery were completed successfully. They also discuss any concerns or special care the patient might need after surgery.
Why is the Surgical Safety Checklist needed?
Dena Knapp was scheduled for surgery to have an adrenal gland, along with a mass on the gland removed.
Later that same day, the surgeon was informed by the pathology department that he had removed the kidney, instead of the adrenal gland. However, two days later the surgeon told Knapp that he had not heard back from pathology yet.
Six days later, Dr. Baker informed Knapp that he had not gotten everything and that she would need to undergo a second surgery.
Knapp made the decision to go to a different hospital to have the second surgery, instead of returning to the same surgeon. A surgeon at the second hospital successfully removed the gland and mass. Knapp has filed suit against the first surgeon and his practice.
According to the lawsuit, “Knapp’s erroneous surgery resulted in an incurable and progressive kidney disease in her remaining kidney…she suffers from pain, fatigue, depression, and mental distress…further, since the erroneous surgery, Dena has been unable to perform many functions and has required replacement services to clean and maintain her home, the past and future cost of which is yet to be determined.” (USA Today)
With the Surgical Safety Checklist in play, everyone in the operating room would have known what body part was to be removed, and the mistake more than likely would not have happened.
The Safe Surgery South Carolina Program
Recently, South Carolina hospitals were asked to participate in a voluntary program to implement this World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist. In the hospitals that completed the study, South Carolina saw a 22% reduction in post-surgical deaths.
“In the Safe Surgery South Carolina program, all hospitals in the state were invited to participate in a voluntary, statewide effort to complete a twelve-step implementation program with Ariadne Labs that included customizing the checklist for the local setting, doing small-scale testing, and observing and coaching on checklist performance.” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Fourteen hospitals (40% of the inpatient volume in the state) completed the study.
Post-surgery, “patients are at risk of complications and death from a variety of causes such as infection, hemorrhage, and organ failure.”
Findings of the Safe Surgery South Carolina program
Findings: Prior to implementation the post-surgery death rate in these 14 hospitals was 3.38% and decreased to 2.84% after implementation. Mortality in the 44 hospitals that did NOT participate in the program was 3.5% , and then increased to 3.71%. That’s a 22% difference in mortality between the two groups!
“With these results, South Carolina offers a national model of best practices in implementing a team-based, communication checklist to drive quality improvement in the operating room.” Gibbons said, “None of us went into health care to hurt people and when it happens, it’s devastating personally, and professionally. And if something as simple as improving communication around the patient so that…everybody is more likely to say, we’re on the wrong leg or we’re hanging the wrong bag, that is what’s saving lives.” (Greenville News)
The Surgical Safety Checklist might seem like a simple tool. But it’s making a big difference in how surgeries are done. By following this checklist, doctors and nurses are working together to make sure patients stay safe and healthy. So, the next time you hear about someone having surgery, remember that behind the scenes, hopefully, there’s a checklist helping to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
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