Educational videos on surgical fires

One of the most frightening events for any surgical staff member, and one of the most devastating events for any surgical patient, is a fire that occurs on or in the patient during a procedure. Surgical fires, as these are called, are fortunately very rare--but they do occur. ECRI has been investigating, reporting on, and teaching about surgical fires for nearly 30 years. Our experience has shown that most of these fires could have been avoided had the staff been adequately educated about the hazards. Educational videos are just one tool that hospitals can use to provide the fire-safety training that surgical staff require. In this Evaluation, we look at five videos covering fire safety in the operating room (OR). Our examination focuses on how well these videos address surgical fires in particular, since these can be the most devastating type of OR fire. We rate each video on how effectively it meets the fire-safety training needs of today's healthcare workers. The videos run the gamut from excellent to unsafe. We rate one Preferred because it contains particularly detailed information, and we rate another Acceptable because it provides good information overall. Two other videos are Not Recommended--the information in one of them, while good, is incomplete, and the other focuses too broadly on OR fires, with not enough emphasis on surgical fires. The fifth video provides two dangerous recommendations and is therefore Unacceptable.