Articles: checklist.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Belg · Jan 2011
Case ReportsUnintentional side error for continuous sciatic nerve block at the popliteal fossa.
Among all fields of healthcare about 45% of medical errors occur in the operating theatre. Wrong site procedures remain one of the most preventable medical errors. ⋯ The surgical safety checklist was established in 2008 by the world Health organization (WHO) as a part of the "Safe surgery save Lives" initiative. We report in this article a case of wrong sided continuous popliteal sciatic nerve block and discuss the role of the WHO's checklist in preventing wrong side peripheral nerve block and surgery.
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Int J Emerg Ment Health · Jan 2011
Critical decision points in crisis support: using checklists and flow charts in psychological crises.
The field of crisis intervention has grown dramatically during the last hundred years. Many new procedures and techniques have been added to the crisis intervention repertoire. Periodically, providers of crisis intervention, psychological first aid, critical incident stress management, or Peer Support overlook important elements of crisis intervention or make inadvertent mistakes as they attempt to intervene. ⋯ This article provides background on the development of flip charts in aviation and medicine and suggests how these tools may be utilized within the field of crisis intervention. Examples of checklists and flow charts that are relevant to crisis intervention are provided. The article also provides guidelines for developing additional checklists and flow charts for use in crisis intervention services.
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Surgical procedures are now very common, with estimates ranging from 4% of the general population having an operation per annum in economically-developing countries; this rising to 8% in economically-developed countries. Whilst these surgical procedures typically result in considerable improvements to health outcomes, it is increasingly appreciated that surgery is a high risk industry. Tools developed in the aviation industry are beginning to be used to minimise the risk of errors in surgery. One such tool is the World Health Organization's (WHO) surgery checklist. The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) manages the largest database of patient safety incidents (PSIs) in the world, already having received over three million reports of episodes of care that could or did result in iatrogenic harm. The aim of this study was to estimate how many incidents of wrong site surgery in orthopaedics that have been reported to the NPSA could have been prevented by the WHO surgical checklist. ⋯ Orthopaedic surgery is a high volume specialty with major technical complexity in terms of equipment demands and staff training and familiarity. There is therefore an increased propensity for errors to occur. Wrong-site surgery still occurs in this specialty and is a potentially devastating situation for both the patient and surgeon. Despite the limitations of inclusion and reporting bias, our study highlights the need to match technical precision with patient safety. Tools such as the WHO surgical checklist can help us to achieve this.