Articles: checklist.
-
Observational Study
The effects of an aviation-style computerised pre-induction anaesthesia checklist on pre-anaesthetic set-up and non-routine events.
There is ever greater interest in mitigating medical errors, particularly through cognitive aids and checklist-system long-used in the aviation industry.
Jelacic and team instituted a computerised pre-induction checklist, using an observational before-and-after study design across 1,570 cases. This is the first study of a computerised anaesthesia checklist in a real clinical environment.
They found an absolute risk reduction of almost 4% of failure-to-perform critical pre-induction steps, along with reduction in non-routine events and several examples of pre-induction mistake identification through checklist use.
Although the researchers claim the results “strongly argue for the routine use of a pre-induction anaesthesia checklist” this overstates the case a little. This study, like many similar, struggles with confounder effects on anaesthesia vigilance that may explain some of the results, particularly as arising from observational, non-randomised, non-blinded research.
Be careful
The challenge for cognitive aid research is that commonly it must use surrogate markers (workflow step failure; behavioural deviations; efficiency; time spent on task etc.) rather than the safety outcomes that actually matter to patients: death and injury.
There is no easy way around this other than large multi-center studies focusing on outcomes, such as the WHO surgical safety checklist study – which even then, has not escaped criticism!
Thinking deeper...
There will continue to be tension between those pro-checklist and those against. The irony is that both camps share a similar rationale for their position: the advocates for routine checklists point to the safety benefits of reducing cognitive load, whereas those opposing argue that enforced use is anti-individual and itself adds additional task and cognitive burden for clinicians.
summary -
BMJ quality & safety · Sep 2021
Randomized Controlled TrialMedical crisis checklists in the emergency department: a simulation-based multi-institutional randomised controlled trial.
Studies carried out in simulated environments suggest that checklists improve the management of surgical and intensive care crises. Whether checklists improve the management of medical crises simulated in actual emergency departments (EDs) is unknown. ⋯ In this multi-institution study, checklists markedly improved local resuscitation teams' management of medical crises simulated in situ, and most personnel reported that they would use the checklists if they had a similar case in reality.
-
Review Meta Analysis
Impact of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist Relative to Its Design and Intended Use: A Systematic Review and Meta-Meta-Analysis.
The aim of this study was to identify what parts of the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist (WHO SSC) are working, what can be done to make it more effective, and to determine if it achieved its intended effect relative to its design and intended use. ⋯ The WHO SSC positively impacts the things it was explicitly designed to address and does not positively impact things it was not explicitly designed for.
-
To define a standardized methodology for establishing benchmarks for relevant outcomes in surgery. ⋯ This multinational Delphi survey represents the first expert-led process for developing a standardized approach for establishing benchmarks for relevant outcome measures in surgery. The provided consensual checklist customizes the methodology of outcome reporting in surgery and thus improves reproducibility and comparability of data and should ultimately serve to improve quality of care.