was sufficiently warm before they were brought into the OR? Even
a low number of adverse events can lead you to a false sense of
security.
"The system can have a huge number of blatant hazards and vulner-
ability, and the patients are still resilient, and we get by with it," says
Dr. Wahr.
For surgical facilities, the task of keeping patients safe does not
come down to one specialist or one policy, says Dr. Wahr. It's about
culture. You can believe you're safe because you haven't had a
catastrophe in your OR, but that attitude will set you up for prob-
lems down the line, says Dr. Wahr.
"When we don't communicate," she says, "really bad things can hap-
pen."
Here are 5 perspectives from safety experts about protecting
patients in the OR and the things you need to be doing to get better.
Changing the checklist
Most ORs are using some version of the World
Health Organization (WHO)'s Surgical Safety
Checklist.
When used correctly, the safety checklist
provides a foundation that every OR needs:
communication, teamwork, a culture of safety
and mutual respect, says George Molina, MD,
MPH, a surgical oncology fellow at the Dana
Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital and
Massachusetts General Hospital. But the checklist isn't an ironclad,
unchangeable document.
"One of the biggest markers of whether a hospital or surgical center
is using the WHO surgical safety checklist well is whether they have
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George Molina, MD, MPH
