Articles: checklist.
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Observational Study
Internal Audit of Compliance with a Perioperative Checklist in a Tertiary Care Neurosurgical Unit.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that, in the United States, 44,000 to 98,000 people die annually as a result of avoidable medical errors. Among the many initiatives undertaken to stem avoidable surgical errors, the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist has certainly been one of the most successful. Many surgical units have implemented adapted versions of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, audited their performance and discussed issues relating to the implementation process. However, such literature is still lacking in neurosurgery. ⋯ In this internal audit study, compliance with the preoperative checklist reached a satisfactory level. Further work is still needed, however, on some aspects of our surgical strategy, namely, a relatively low compliance rate with the Sign-in process was recorded and emergent cases were associated with decreased performance.
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Efforts to implement quality improvements in surgery are notoriously problematic. One needs to look no farther than recent attempts to implement checklists, team training, and surgical briefings. These interventions have been empirically shown to improve team communication and performance. ⋯ The model highlights important variables associated with implementation success. It also provides a tool for diagnosing why certain interventions may not have worked as intended so that improvements in the implementation process can be made. Finally, the model offers a general framework for guiding future implementation or "how to" research.
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We describe an adverse event during minimally invasive cardiac surgery that resulted in a multi-disciplinary review of intra-operative errors and the creation of a procedural checklist. This checklist aims to prevent errors of omission and communication failures that result in increased morbidity and mortality. We discuss the application of the aviation - led "threats and errors model" to medical practice and the role of checklists and other strategies aimed at reducing medical errors.