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Attitudes and compliance to the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist; a review

  • ICS congress 2015
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

This review aimed to assess surgical safety checklist compliance (SSC) and evaluate surgical team attitudes, post checklist implementation.

Method

A thorough search of MEDLINE and PUBMED databases for English language studies using any adapted form of the WHO SSC was conducted. In total 26 studies; 13 assessing SSC compliance and 13 investigating surgical team attitudes of the checklist, were evaluated.

Results

Compliance studies demonstrated a checklist initiation rate of >90 %, but showed completion rates to be significantly lower across studies. ‘Sign out’ was the most poorly performed phase (<50 %) with ‘Time out’ being the best. Verification of patient identity and procedure demonstrated high (>90 %) compliance, while ‘Verification of team-members’ varied greatly. Surgical team attitudes noted improved teamwork, communication, patient safety and staff awareness of adverse events.

Conclusion

SSC compliance is highly dependent on staff perceptions, training and effective leadership. While, surgical teams have positive attitudes towards the SSC, resolving key barriers will improve compliance across all phases of SCC.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, 4811, Townsville, Australia

    Laltaksh Wangoo

  2. Senior Lecturer, College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, 4811, Townsville, Australia

    Robin A. Ray

  3. Professor of Surgery Townsville Clinical School, School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, 4811, Townsville, Australia

    Yik-Hong Ho

Authors
  1. Laltaksh Wangoo
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  2. Robin A. Ray
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  3. Yik-Hong Ho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laltaksh Wangoo.

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Conflict of interest

L. Wangoo, R.A. Ray and Y.-H. Ho state that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

The supplement is dedicated to Jubilee World congress of International College of Surgeons 2015.

The publishing was sponsored by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.

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Wangoo, L., Ray, R.A. & Ho, YH. Attitudes and compliance to the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist; a review. Eur Surg 48 (Suppl 2), 155–162 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10353-016-0405-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10353-016-0405-5

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