RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Communication failures contribute to quality gaps and may lead to serious safety events (SSEs) in the operating room (OR). Our perioperative services team experienced an increased rate of SSEs in 2020. Event analysis revealed clustered causes: communication failures and lack of timely information to prepare for cases. Consequently, the team implemented a daily morning OR safety huddle conducted before bringing patients into the OR to reduce quality gaps and improve communication. METHODS: The attending surgeon and anesthesiologist, circulating nurse, and scrub staff are required to be present. Cases are discussed using a standard format designed by the OR team with built-in time for questions and clarifications. The surgeon initiates the huddle; the circulating nurse leads and records the discussion. OR leadership initially performed daily audits but gradually reduced them when huddles became standard operating procedure (SOP). SSEs were recorded from December 2015 to September 2020 preintervention and October 2020 to July 2023 postintervention. RESULTS: Following the implementation of huddles, there were no SSEs for more than 900 days (2.0 SSEs/year preintervention vs. 0.0 SSEs/year postintervention). The first SSE during the postintervention period occurred in March 2023. Huddle compliance was consistently > 95%. No delays were observed in first-case on-time starts postintervention. The huddle is now SOP for all general OR teams and interventional radiology. CONCLUSION: Implementing the morning safety huddle contributed to a reduction in the rate of SSEs without introducing delays to first-case start-times.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Our country is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. Although the problem is multifactorial, one issue is the presence of excess prescription opioid medications circulating in our communities. Our objective was to determine whether dissemination of an educational brochure would improve the disposal of unused opioids after surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Eligible surgery patients from an upper extremity/peripheral nerve clinic were enrolled into this prospective before and after study between February 2017 and September 2017. Patients who reported opioid use preoperatively were excluded from this study. The same survey was administered to the group of patients who did not receive the intervention and to those who did receive the intervention. Our primary endpoint was the proportion of patients who disposed of unused opioid medications. RESULTS: A total of 334 patients were studied: 164 who did not receive the brochure and 170 who received the brochure. Seventy-six patients were excluded for preoperative opioid use. After dissemination of the brochure, there was a significant increase in the proportion of patients who disposed of their unused opioids (11% vs 22%, p = 0.02). Of those who disposed of their opioids, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients from each group who disposed in a manner that was recommended by the brochure (43% vs 64%, p = 0.19). CONCLUSIONS: Dissemination of the educational brochure improved disposal of unused opioids after surgery. This low-cost, easily implemented intervention can improve disposal of unused opioids and ultimately, decrease the amount of excess opioids circulating in our communities.
