A preliminary study of patients' perceptions on the implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist in women who had Cesarean sections.

The surgical safety checklist (SSCL), developed by the World Health Organization, is widely implemented by surgical staff for the improvement of their communication, teamwork, and safety culture in the operating room. However, there is no research available addressing the question of how surgical patients perceive the implementation of the SSCL. In order to address this issue, a questionnaire-based preliminary study was conducted for patients who had undergone elective Cesarean section under awake regional anesthesia. Although most participants had not been informed about the implementation of the SSCL before surgery, all of the patients were aware that the SSCL had been performed in the operating room. Over 80% of patients answered that the implementation of the SSCL could help to reduce their feelings of anxiety, tension, and fear, as well as enhance their feeling of security. Furthermore, most patients answered that they were able to understand the components as well as the purpose of the SSCL, and considered that the SSCL should be implemented. These results suggest that awake patients undergoing Cesarean section perceive the implementation of the SSCL to be a highly positive aspect of their surgical care.

Improvement of teamwork and safety climate following implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist at a university hospital in Japan.

With the aim to optimize surgical safety, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the Surgical Safety Checklist (SSCL) in 2008. The SSCL has been piloted in many countries worldwide and shown to improve both safety attitudes within surgical teams and patient outcomes. In the study reported here we investigated whether implementation of the SSCL improved the teamwork and safety climate at a single university hospital in Japan. All surgical teams at the hospital implemented the SSCL in all surgical procedures with strict adherence to the SSCL implementation manual developed by WHO. Changes in safety attitudes were evaluated using the modified operating-room version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). A before and after design was used, with the questionnaire administered before and 3 months after SSCL implementation. Our analysis revealed that the mean scores on the SAQ had significantly improved 3 months after implementation of the SSCL compared to those before implementation. This finding implies that effective implementation of the SSCL could improve patient outcomes in Japan, similar to the findings of the WHO pilot study.