The Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) has become the first public sector hospital in the State to implement WHO’s Surgical Safety List, which had been drawn up as part of a global initiative to bring attention to patient safety as an important aspect of healthcare delivery.
A statement issued by the MCH authorities said that the General Surgery and Anaesthesiology departments started implementing the Surgical Safety List in the operation theatres from Monday. MCH Principal Thomas Mathew formally unveiled the list.
‘Safe Surgery Saves Life’ is an initiative undertaken by WHO to improve the safety of surgical care around the world by defining a core set of safety standards that can be applied in all WHO member States.
Four key areas
Experienced clinicians are in consensus that dramatic improvements could be made in the safety of surgical care by focussing on four key areas - surgical site infection prevention, safe anaesthesia, safe surgical teams and measurement of surgical services.
WHO, in association with the Harvard School of Public Health, has thus drawn up a 19-item checklist for surgical safety “to decrease errors and adverse events, and increase teamwork and communication in surgery.”
Implementation of this checklist in hospitals has resulted in significant reduction in both morbidity and mortality following surgeries.
The checklist includes questions on patient identity, surgical site, patient’s known allergies, anticipated blood loss, anaesthesia machine and medicine checklist, anticipated critical events, key concerns for recovery and specific questions that the nursing team has to answer.
Patient can clarify
MCH authorities said the checklist would be marked off by the nurse, anaesthetist and the surgeon in the theatre, before the surgery. Before the induction of anaesthesia, the patient would also be told clearly about his condition and the procedure that is to be undertaken. The patient would thus have an opportunity to seek clarifications directly from the surgical team, before the procedure begins. A copy of the checklist would be attached to the patient’s case sheet.
