Healthcare professionals in South Carolina have introduced a goal of implementing surgical safety checklists into every single operating room cross the state, a practice that is estimated to save 500 lives, prevent 2,000 complications and cut healthcare costs by $28 million every year, according to an American College of Surgeons news release.
The American College of Surgeons, Safe Surgery 2015 and the S.C. Hospital Association hosted the ACS Surgical Health Care Quality Forum South Carolina, where the goal was introduced.
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South Carolina was chosen to spearhead the project because of the S.C. Hospital Association’s 2009 Operation: Safe Surgery initiative, which led to 80 percent of the hospitals with surgical services implementing the World Health Organization's surgical safety checklist in at least one operating room, according to a Charleston Regional Business Journal report.
The new goal calls for customizing the WHO checklist to each facility's workflow and culture to enhance team communication and, eventually, better patient safety outcomes.
"The use of this checklist and the team collaboration surrounding its implementation inside the OR is a great example of how a focus on possible pitfalls or roadblocks can prevent problems and lead to a safer environment,” said forum host Chad Rubin, MD, FACS, staff surgeon at Providence Hospitals and ACS Governor-at-Large for the state of South Carolina, said in the news release. "It isn't that 'the checklist prevented this many infections,' it is more the checklist led to better team communication, less confusion in the OR, and ultimately greater patient safety."
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