Surgical Safety Checklists Are Underutilized in Ambulatory Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

The objective of this study was to determine attitudes toward and the prevalence of using a surgical safety checklist in ambulatory oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) practice.

The authors designed and implemented a cross-sectional study and enrolled a random sample of oral and maxillofacial surgeons. The predictor variable was years removed from residency. The primary outcome was the prevalence of surgical safety checklist usage in ambulatory OMS practice. The secondary outcome was to determine whether surgeons who do not currently use a checklist would be willing to do so if provided with one. Other demographic variables included age, gender, location of practice, type of practice, and number of ambulatory procedures performed per week. Appropriate uni- and bivariate statistics were computed and the level of significance set at .05; 95% confidence intervals also were calculated.

The study sample was composed of 120 clinicians. Forty-two percent of respondents reported that they were not using a surgical safety checklist for ambulatory surgery. Ninety-three percent of those respondents not currently using a checklist reported they would consider implementing a surgical safety checklist in their practice if provided with one. In addition, 45.3% of surgeons performing more than 30 procedures a week reported not using a surgical safety checklist. Most respondents (67.9%) who had completed OMS training more than 20 years previously reported not using a checklist in their practice.

According to this survey, most practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeons do not currently use surgical safety checklists. Although the response rate was only 12%, the survey does reflect a clear lack of use of checklists among practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeons despite its widespread acceptance in the medical community.