New Surgical Safety Checks at the Whittington
Today the surgical experience is safe but scientific evidence suggests that the incidence of avoidable surgical complications can be reduced even further through simple changes in theatre practice. Here at The Whittington Hospital we have made the ‘surgical experience’ safer for our patients than ever before.
This is primarily due to radical changes to the 'Surgical Safety Checklist', the introduction of two safety checks, as well as the implementation of the standard practise of 'timeout' and team briefing’ within the theatre setting. These simple but effective changes have been introduced into our theatre practice on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation ‘Recommending Practices to Improve Safety of Surgical Patients’ (2008).
All patients undergoing surgery at The Whittington Hospital will have two surgical checks on arriving in the operating theatre. It ensures all issues with regards to the patient are communicated and dealt with immediately and effectively in front of all members of the operating team, thus radically reducing the incidence of avoidable surgical complications and raising patient safety and care.
Photograph: Julianna Celaire (middle), team leader in Theatres with two of her colleagues doing a 'time out'.
Last updated02 Apr 2009