Causes and Effects of Introducing Surgery Safety Checklist: A Review

Surgical Safety Checklist

Objectives: the surgical safety checklist (SSC) is a document that is intended to increase patient safety in the operating theater by eliminating avoidable errors. The original document has been published in English by the WHO which recommends its obligatory use. The document’s name is often distorted when translated into European languages, for instance into the “surgical control list”. This article aims to assess the consequences of the distortion of the originally intended meaning for the completion of SSC in the operating theater. Methods: we compared the exactness of the meaning of translation in 29 European languages based on Google translator. Particular attention was paid to the presence of essential words such as “checklist” and “safety” in the translation.Results: we found that in 15 out of the 29 languages, the translation of these two words was incorrect, particularly in Slavic languages. The most often mistranslation was the “control card” or “control list”, which was a misnomer.Conclusions: the translation of the SSC name into native languages is inadequate in about one-half of the cases, which may jeopardize its proper use by team members of the operating theater, and thus the patient perioperative safety.

Surgical Safety Checklist: Polychromatic or Achromatic Design

The Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) has been created based on the recommendations of the WHO and obligatorily introduced worldwide. SSC is used to increase the patient's safety and reduce complications while in the hospital, especially in the perioperative period. The original SSC template was of a multicolor polychromatic design. However, an achromatic black-and-white or gray-gray design on plain printer paper appears often used in clinical practice. This review aims to assess the level of SSC use in the polychromatic versus achromatic versions and the pros and cons of using either in practice. We used the Google browser for the identification and collection of SSC graphic images available as of June 2021 using the following search commands: "surgical safety checklist WHO" or "surgical safety checklist" or "SSC WHO." The commands were repeated in 103 languages representing the five continents with the back answers provided in 41 languages. The successive top 10 thematically relevant images or fewer if not available in the cases of some foreign languages were considered for analysis, providing a mean of 5 ±2 images per language. The numbers of achromatic and polychromatic two-color or multicolor images were calculated. The number of images corresponding to the respective color designs ranged as follows: 0-6 (27.6%), 0-9 (41.6%), and 0-6 (27.6%) We conclude that polychromatic imaging of SSC documents predominates in practical use. The polychromatic SSC design catches the doctor's eye, which likely increases the effectiveness of completing the document.

Compliance with the Surgery Safety Checklist: An Update on the Status

WHO has recommended the implementation of the Surgery Safety Checklist (SSC) to reign in often simple logistic errors that lead to numerous complications, some of them being fatal, in the perioperative period. This study aims to discuss doubts presented in the medical literature concerning the effectiveness of SSC in the currently existing form. The article is based on the literature search performed in PubMed using the command phrase "Surgery Safety Checklist". The search yielded 1,476 articles up to March 2021. Out of this group, we selected 811 articles for further detailed analysis. The selection was based on the meritorious SSC-related topicality and scrutinized content of the articles. Out of these articles, we identified 59 studies that specifically raised the issue of the effectiveness of SSC use in its current form, which we discussed herein in detail. The review distinctly indicates that the SSC reduces perioperative complications including fatalities. However, there are issues reported with the itemized content of the checklist that hardly corresponds to the diverseness of patients' conditions and operating room settings. Further, it is unclear if a reduction in the complications stems from the use of SSC or the algorithms for performing procedures it contains. The consensus arises that SSC should be periodically updated so that it would catch up with the advances in medical knowledge and the emerging technologies, which would safeguard the SSC from becoming just another paperwork nuisance for the operating room staff.