Safe surgery checklist: filling adherence, inconsistencies, and challenges

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality
• Patient Safety
• Surgical Procedures

Background:

• The Safe Surgery Checklist is crucial for improving patient safety during surgical interventions.
• Adherence to checklists is vital for preventing surgical errors and adverse events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess adherence to the Safe Surgery Checklist in a Brazilian hospital.
• To identify factors influencing the utilization of the checklist in surgical settings.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective, documentary, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach was conducted.
• Medical records of 423 surgical patients were reviewed over one year.
• Inclusion criteria included patients aged 18+ with hospitalization ≥24 hours.

Main Results:

• The checklist was present in 95% of medical records, but only 67.4% were fully completed.
• Checklist presence correlated with patient anesthetic risk; no differences noted across checklist phases (sign in, time out, sign out).
• Inconsistencies were identified in the 'laterality' item, indicating procedural variations.

Conclusions:

• High checklist presence does not guarantee complete adherence.
• Incompleteness and inconsistencies in checklist use may undermine patient safety goals.
• Further interventions are needed to ensure full and accurate checklist completion.