TOWARDS BETTER PATIENT SAFETY: The WHO Surgical Checklist in Otorhinolaryngology

Paivi Helmio TOWARDS BETTER PATIENT SAFETY: The WHO Surgical Checklist in Otorhinolaryngology From the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki 2015. More than one-half of adverse events in health care are related to surgery. Surgical patient injuries account for about 80% of patient injuries in otorhinolaryngology (ORL). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed a Surgical Safety Checklist to prevent errors in the operating theatre. Its use has been shown to reduce complications and mortality. The aims of the present study were to identify errors that may underlie those patient injuries that occur in operative ORL, to assess the effects of the WHO checklist on working processes in the operating theatre, including compliance, and to evaluate how it would fit into the specialty. Data of the patient injuries that were sustained during treatment by the ORL specialty between the years 2001 and 2011 were obtained from a search of the Finnish Patient Insurance Centre registry. The causes of the injuries were analysed, and whether the WHO checklist could have prevented the error was evaluated. The checklist was implemented in four Finnish hospitals as a pilot in 2009. A prospective before-versus-after-intervention study was conducted with a questionnaire for OT personnel in these four hospitals to evaluate the checklist. The checklist was subsequently implemented for regular use in the operative unit of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of Helsinki University Central Hospital. After one-year of use, compliance and user attitudes were analysed by using data obtained from the operations database and a survey of operative ORL personnel. In the 10-year study period, 188 patient injuries were associated with operative ORL. A total of 142 (75.5%) of these injuries occurred due to errors that were made in the operating theatre, and in 125 cases (66.5%) a manual error in performing the surgery was the primary cause of the injury. Six injuries (3.2%) were caused by wrong site surgery. An error had some degree correspondence with a WHO checklist item for 18 injuries (9.6%) and it was determined that 9 of these injuries (4.8%) could have been prevented had the checklist been correctly used. The implementation of the checklist enhanced the communication between the surgical team members, improved verification of the patient’s identity and of the correct operation site. Checklist compliance was 62.3% during first year of use. It was considered easy to use and the Safety Attitude Scores of the personnel were found to be on a high level. All check items on the list were considered important for ORL. However, a more compact checklist for outpatient surgery was requested. Patient injuries in ORL were strongly related to surgery. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist seems to be a beneficial tool for preventing errors ORL and is highly relevant for the specialty. Keywords: operative otorhinolaryngology, patient safety, adverse event, patient injury, wrong site surgery, surgical safety checklist</p

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Peer reviewe

Predictors of weight loss 2 years after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy

Introduction: Despite the rapidly increasing popularity of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), there is limited data examining weight loss more than 1 year after the procedure. There have also been few studies examining baseline predictors of weight loss after LSG. We aimed to examine the percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL) in patients 2 years after LSG and identify baseline predictors of %EWL. Methods: Electronic records from university hospitals were available for 292 patients who underwent LSG (205 women; mean age, 41.5 ± 11.1 years; mean weight, 126.5 ± 27.5 kg; mean BMI, 45.5 ± 7.5 kg/m2). Variables assessed for predictive effect were baseline age, sex, BMI, presence of comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, or obstructive sleep apnea), the amount of weight loss induced by a very low-calorie diet before surgery, and the number of clinic appointments attended over the 2 years. We performed linear regression and mixed model analyses between predictor variables and %EWL at 2 years. Results: Adjusted %EWL was 31% at 2 weeks, 49% at 3 months, 64% at 6 months, 70% at 9 months, 76% at 12 months, 79% at 18 months, and 79% at 2 years. Multivariate analysis showed that lower baseline BMI, absence of hypertension, and greater clinic attendance predicted better %EWL (r2 = 0.11). Conclusion: Longer-term follow-up studies of weight loss post LSG are required to assist with patient care and management

Surgical safety checklists: a review

Background: Surgical checklists are designed to improve patient outcomes following surgery. While such checklists have been widely implemented worldwide, few studies examine surgical checklists within an Australian context. For this purpose, we have performed a literature review using data from OECD member nations to determine the effectiveness of surgical checklists in improving patient outcomes and factors that contribute to their successful implementation. Method: The databases, Pubmed, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane and CINAHL were searched using the keywords ('surgical' AND 'checklist') and ((surgical) AND checklist) AND ((implementation) OR (utilization) OR (usage)). Studies were limited to those written in the English language, peer-reviewed, published between January 2000 and December 2012, and including an abstract. Results: Our search yielded 2242 papers, of which 72 papers were identified for their potential relevance and selected for full text review. Of these, nine papers met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed in detail. Evidence that supports the use of surgical checklists in countries with a large number of protocols already in place is limited. Adequate checklist implementation plays a central role in checklist effectiveness, which in turn is dependent on multiple factors. Conclusion: Although evidence from OECD member countries is non-conclusive, it does suggest that surgical checklists, when effectively implemented, have the potential to be effective at reducing complication and mortality rates following surgery. Within an Australian context, more studies are needed to fully establish the potential effectiveness of surgical checklists and to monitor checklist use compliance in order to ensure greater patient safety