Impact of the Standardized Surgical Checklist on Communication and Teamwork Among Interdisciplinary Surgical Team Members

Abstract

Traditional timeouts done ineffectively before surgical procedures can result in late blood product requests, inadequate preparation of needed intraoperative apparatus, improper administration of required antibiotics, and operating room (OR) time delays. This clinical concern is important to address because based on current evidence, implementing a Standardized Surgical Checklist (SSC) during timeout can impact patient safety by reducing complications following surgery and can promote good communication and teamwork among the care team. This quality improvement project is aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate the impact of SSC on communication and teamwork among an interdisciplinary surgical care team at Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center (LAC + USC). The design of this project was a pre- and postinnovation survey. The participants were the members of the interdisciplinary care team who participated in the surgical timeout before and after the innovation was implemented. The surveys consisted of 219 participants. Results from an independent t test demonstrated that the mean improvement score for both communication (t = -3.704, df = 190, p < .001) and teamwork (t = -3.028, df = 184, p = .003) were significantly higher in the postinnovation group than in the preinnovation group. These results indicate that SSC can improve communication and teamwork among providers inside the OR which can potentially lead to a safer delivery of care.

Keywords: Standardized Surgical Checklist; communication; teamwork; timeout.