Patient Safety: The Surgical Safety Checklist

One in 13 admissions in Canada is associated with an adverse event. The estimate that up to 23,000 people died in 2004 in Canadian hospitals because of preventable adverse events is staggering.

Quality care requires quality communication. Communication failure amongst clinicians is the leading source of adverse events in healthcare.

At Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA), we are committed to ensuring that our patients receive the safest surgical care possible. There are many critical co-dependant steps needed for a team to achieve successful surgical outcomes. Research and experience of many Operating Room teams confirm that implementing a Checklist has an impact on surgical safety and team communication.

Checklists incorporate key principles that rely on standardized processes and better access to information and feedback. A Checklist ensures that teams share critical information and deliver evidence-based interventions for every single patient, in every surgical procedure at the right time. We have always used checklists…now it’s time for the whole team to be present and involved, including the patient.

This year, based on a checklist developed by the World Health Organization, CKHA’s Operating Room team created and implemented its own Surgical Safety Checklist. The checklist is discussed at three critical points in surgery with all team members present; (a) with the awake patient, (b) immediately before the incision and (c) prior to the patient leaving the operating room.

CKHA’s compliance with using the Surgical Safety Checklist, (all three phases) was 96.9% for the 1st reporting quarter – a solid result in improving patient safety.