[Observational Team work Assessment for Surgery as Quality and Safety improvement tool]

As in high reliability systems , also in surgery the causes of adverse events are primarily correlated to deficiencies in Non Technical Skills (individual and social skills), that contribute with Technical Skills to a safe surgical procedure. Non Technical Skills are cognitive behavioural and interpersonal abilities, that are not specific to the expertise of one profession, but very important to guarantee the patient safety and to reduce risk of errors and adverse events. The Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery (OTAS) is an useful tool to assess teamwork of the whole surgical team (surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses) in real time and through the surgical procedure (pre-intra-postoperative phases). OTAS consists of the two following parts: a) teamwork-related task checklist to fill by a surgeon, b) teamwork-related behaviours rated by a psychologist/human factors expert. Back translation in Italian language of the eight task checklists and of the rating scales of the five behavioural areas was performed by two Italian surgeons with certified English language knowledge. The OTAS model in Italian language was applied in four surgical procedures : the test-retest reliability was found to be acceptable with K- Pearson index. The internal consistency of behavioural scales appeared sound using Cronbach ?. OTAS is an useful tool to assess the risk factors correlated to patient and team and to detect the vulnerability areas where changes to reduce errors and improve surgical outcomes might be introduced.