• José Luis Pardal-Refoyo, Jesús Javier Cuello-Azcárate, and Luis Francisco Santiago-Peña.
• Servicio de Otorrinolaringología, Sección de Cirugía tiroidea y paratiroidea, Complejo Asistencial de Zamora, Hospital Virgen de la Concha, Grupo de Investigación en patología de tiroides y paratiroides, Zamora, España. Electronic address: jlpardal@saludcastillayleon.es.
• Endocrinol Nutr. 2014 Nov 1; 61 (9): 445-54.

IntroductionCommunication failures may result in inadequate treatment and patient harm, and are among the most common causes of sentinel events. Checklists are part of cycles to improve quality of the care process, promote communication between professionals involved in the different stages, help detect failures and risks, and increase patient safety. The lack of checklists at each stage was identified as a factor contributing to communication failures.ObjectiveTo design checklists at different stages of the thyroidectomy care process to improve the communication between the professionals involved.MethodMultidisciplinary working team consisting of specialists in otolaryngology, anesthesiology, and endocrinology. The process of thyroidectomy was divided into three stages (preoperative -A-, operative -B- and postoperative -C-). Potential safety incidents and failures at each stage and their contributing factors (causes) were identified by literature review and brainstorming. Checklists for each checkpoint were designed by consensus of the working group.ResultsThe items correspond to factors contributing to the occurrence of incidents in the perioperative stage of thyroidectomy related to patients, technological equipment, environment, management, and organization. Lists of items should be checked by the appropriate specialist in each stage.ConclusionsChecklists in thyroid surgery are tools that allow for testing at different checkpoints data related to factors contributing to the occurrence of failures at each stage of the care process.Copyright © 2014 SEEN. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

28 keywords...

hide…