ABSTRACT
Background: Surgical adverse events due to negligence are increasingly recognized as an important aspect for preventing morbidity and mortality in healthcare system. WHO Safe Surgical Checklist provides an opportunity for surgical teams to minimize surgical adverse events by following just a simple checklist. The aim of this study is to assess the compliance of different members of the surgical team to this checklist and post operative outcomes before and after an orientation programme regarding the checklist. Methods: We observed 100 elective surgeries in the Department of Surgery of our institution and collected the baseline data regarding the use of WHO Safe Surgical Checklist in these surgeries. Following the collection of baseline data we organised an orientation program for the surgical team at our institution and collected the same data after orientation. Data obtained both before and after the data collection were compared. Results: This study has shown significant improvement in certain sections of the WHO Safe Surgical Checklist such as conformation, by the patient himself, of his identity (10%) , site of surgery (23%) and procedure to be performed (35%) . A significant increase has also been shown in estimation of the duration of surgery by the surgeons (11%) and specimen labelling (44%). The members of the surgical team introduced themselves more number of times (17%) after the orientation. Number of deaths (50%) and surgical site infections (80% class1 SSI, 25 % class 2 SSI, 13% class 3 SSI, 52% class 4 SSI) has also been shown to decrease following the checklist implementation. Conclusion: Implementation of this WHO Safe Surgical Checklist is beneficial both to the patient and to the surgical team and is not very difficult to comply with, considering the excellent post operative outcomes shown in this study. Compliance with all items on the checklist with active co-operation, co-ordination and participation by all team members are key factors that led to the successful implementation of the checklist