Getting the whole team on board to prevent retained foreign bodies
A case of an item left behind after surgery can be like a canary in a coal mine—a signal that an OR department has systems problems. Retained items often happen as a result of poor communication and faulty processes. Perhaps nurses aren't using a standardized counting procedure in all ORs.…
What works for teamwork training
A case is getting ready to start. The radio is playing. The surgeon is helping position the patient. The anesthesiologist is giving the antibiotic. Someone is hooking up the suction. The circulating nurse is calling for the time-out to verify the surgical site, but no one is paying much attention.…
WHO launches global program for safe surgery, with checklist
Crew resource management in the OR takes another step forward with the World Health Organization's (WHO) launch of Safe Surgery Saves Lives, which puts a new checklist, the surgical safety checklist (SSC), at the center of patient safety. Preliminary results from 8 pilot sites worldwide indicate the checklist nearly doubled…
Military's team-training tools now available to ORs, others
A63-year-old patient is having cataract surgery. The surgeon calls for the lens, and the circulating nurse, just returning from lunch, presents what he thinks is the correct lens. Without checking, the surgeon asks the nurse to open the lens container. The lens he inserts turns out to be the one…
Power of teams theme for conference
If health care were sports, physicians would be playing golf or tennis. Each MD would be trying to win a match to score points for the team. Nurses would be playing volleyball, where every member has a role—to dig, set, or spike the ball. Physicians and nurses both consider themselves…
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