BEAUFORT MEMORIAL IS ONE
of a few South Carolina
hospitals taking the lead in the most recent phase
of the South Carolina Hospital Association’s (SCHA)
Operation: Safe Surgery initiative. Dr. Atul Gawande,
Harvard surgeon and internationally known author,
chose our state as the lead to work with him and his team
to introduce the surgical safety checklist and team training
to every operating room in the state. BMH was right on board.
“We have been using the surgical checklist in our ORs for
years,” says BMH Operating Room (OR) Director Marylee Riggio, RN.
“We combined the WHO [World Health Organization] checklist with a more
extensive one from the AORN [Association of Operating Room Nurses], and have it
posted in all of our ORs.”
However, Riggio agrees that the degree to which various members of the sur-
gical team observe every detail of the checklist can vary to some extent. Tat’s
why she and the members of her Safe Surgery 2013 team are working to make
using the checklist an integral part of BMH’s culture.
“If you read Dr. Gawande’s book,
Te Surgical Checklist
, you can see that it’s easy
to let a few things slide unless everyone gets trained constantly on how important
it is to review it before every surgery, no matter how small,” she says. “For example,
it is very important that everyone know who everyone else is in a surgery prior to
starting. Tat way, they know everyone’s role and what to expect from them.”
Riggio says she and her staf were glad to see SCHA partner with Dr. Gawande on
this project. And although they are just beginning, they are excited about seeing the
fnal results.
BMH takes on
national
safety project
S.C. hospitals
change Safe
Surgery 2015 to
Safe Surgery 2013
For more information about the Safe Surgery 2015
checklist, visit www.safesurgery2015.org.
Te BMH safe surgery 2013 team
includes: (front row) Jessica Herriott,
unit secretary; Cindy Crowther, CRNA;
and Karen Carroll, vice president of
patient care services; (back row) Gary
Tompson, MD, anesthesiologist; Chad
Tober, MD, vascular surgeon; Marylee
Riggio, RN, operating room director;
and Rick Toomey, BMH President and
CEO. Bobby Bell, MD, anesthesiologist,
was not available for the photo.
Safe Surgery 2015 is a quest to
have every hospital operating
room in the United States using
the safe surgery checklist success-
fully in less than fve years. Being
a leader always means taking on
more responsibility. For South
Carolina hospitals, that means ac-
complishing this by 2013.
Safe Surgery Program
Director Bill Berry, MD, MPH,
and his team from the
Harvard School of Public
Health came down to the
South Carolina Hospital
Association’s annual meeting
to present a comprehensive
“who, what, when and how”
guide to successfully implement-
ing the Safe Surgery 2015 checklist
in a hospital setting.
Te presentation outlined key
steps and strategies for imple-
menting the checklist, emphasiz-
ing the importance of working
within individual hospitals through
the support of individual staf. He
stressed the importance of broad
representation on the team so that
all points of view are included.
Tough customization is
necessary, Berry also stressed the
importance of keeping the team
introductions, briefng and debrief-
ing on the checklist. Te goal of
the checklist is twofold: to im-
prove surgical performance and to
improve communication between
members of the surgical team.
Staf introductions help to en-
courage everyone in the operating
room to feel like they have a voice.
Successful implementation of
the safe surgery checklist depends
entirely on the willingness of each
person to make it work. Tat
willingness can vary from person
to person and surgeon to surgeon.
Te process may seem difcult
and slow at times, but the Harvard
team emphasized that the key is to
keep pushing forward.
LAUGHTER IS THE
BEST MEDICINE
Watch Dr. Atul Gawande’s interview
on Te Daily Show With Jon Stewart
for a straightforward explanation of
the safety checklist. Go to
www.thedailyshow.com/
watch/wed-february-3-2010/
atul-gawande.
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