Accreditation 2023 - Communcation

Safe Surgical Checklist by Amber Boire and Mila Schryer

Surgical procedures are increasingly complex aspects of health services and carry a significant risk of potentially avoidable harm. Safe surgery checklists play an important role in improving the safety of surgical procedures. They can reduce the likelihood of complications following surgery and often improve surgical outcomes.

A safe surgery checklist is used to initiate, guide, and formalize communication among the team members conducting a surgical procedure
and to integrate these steps into surgical workflow. Click here for Q-Tip. 

The checklist has three phases:

1.Briefing – before the induction of anesthesia
2.Time out – before skin incision
3.Debriefing – before the patient leaves the operating room

At PRH, the safe surgery checklist is used to ensure that the correct procedure, side/site, and patient information is shared between the patient and OR Team before induction of anaesthesia for every surgical procedure:  

• It’s use is initiated by the circulating nurse; surgeon; and/or Anaesthetist or in combination of all three. 

• It is discussed audibly with the surgical team present, and while patient is awake. 

               The surgical team includes:  

               - Anaesthetist

               - Surgeon

               - Circulating Nurse

               - Scrub Nurse

               - Obstetrical Nurse (for Caesarian sections)

               - Respiratory Technologist (for Caesarian sections)

               - Other team members specific to each OR procedure 

• It is completed by the circulating nurse and it is part of the patient's record/chart
• The Intraoperative record also indicates whether the checklist has been completed  

For more information, please access the Surgical Safety Checklist in the Policy and Procedure manual.