Half of all adverse events in Canadian hospitals occur during or after surgery, as reported in the Canadian Adverse Events Study released in 2004.
The Safe Surgery Saves Lives (SSSL) initiative was established by the World Alliance for Patient Safety as part of the World Health Organization’s efforts to reduce the number of surgical deaths around the world. One of the initiatives is to use a set of safety checks that could be carried out in any operating room in any country. These safety checks have been combined in the form of a Surgical Safety Checklist to be used at three critical points during surgery: before the patient receives any form of anaesthetic, before the incision is made, and at the end of the operation.
The WHO’s international pilot study, which involved the Toronto General Hospital and seven other hospitals from around the world, found that using the 19-point Surgical Patient Safety Checklist reduced surgical complications and mortality.
Study results revealed deaths and complications dropped by more than one third. The Checklist improves communications among members of the surgical team during surgery and increases consistency in using proven standards of surgical care to reduce preventable complications and mortality.
Accreditation Canada participates in the working group led by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) that is adapting the Checklist for the Canadian context. The components of the Checklist are present in Accreditation Canada’s standards. The initiative acts as a simple guide for good practices that have proven to be effective in the surgical setting.