What Good Are Surgical Safety Checklists?
They're effective only if your team uses them — and uses them properly.
P
re-surgical
checklists
are only as
effective as the
team using them.
To reap the safety
benefits, you've got
to use your check-
list right.
Otherwise, it's just
one more burden-
some task for your
surgical team to
complete. Follow these 5 tips to ensure your team capitalizes on
the tool designed to prevent the communication breakdowns that
contribute to most preventable adverse events in surgery.
Form active leadership. Rely on team facilitators to imple-
ment checklists and conduct ongoing quality improvement
programs designed to enhance the tool based on your staff's spe-
cific needs. Recruit surgeons and anesthesiologists in order to
support use of the checklist and break down the hierarchy in the
OR. The checklist is designed to improve multidisciplinary com-
munication, which should start in the planning phase. During that
time, staff facilitators can help colleagues understand that use of
a checklist alone won't ensure patient safety and that the tool is
not a checkbox activity completed mindlessly — it's essential that
you verify each item as a team.
1
1 5 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 7
Safety
Vanessa Lyons, PhD, RN, CNOR
• CONVERSATION STARTER A surgical safety checklist can be a great tool for
improving patient safety, but it's not worth the paper it's printed on unless you use it
properly.
Kaiser
Permanente
Medical
Center
