Decreasing intraop delays with surgical safety checklist

Editor's Note

Purposeful completion (fidelity) of, more than adherence to, items in the surgical safety checklist diminished intraoperative delays in this study.

Of 591 cases analyzed, 110 (19%) had at least one documented intraoperative delay. The majority were related to missing (50%) or malfunctioning (30%) equipment.

Degree of fidelity was different between cases with and without delays (77.1% vs 80.5%), but degree of adherence  was not (96.3% vs 95.6%).

Purposeful completion (fidelity) more than simple adherence to items in the surgical
safety checklist may improve operating room efficiency and patient safety. The purpose
of this study was to evaluate intraoperative delays and correlate them with adherence
and fidelity to the preincision surgical safety checklist.

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