T
he staff and
physicians
at the
Presidio
Surgery
Center in San
Francisco take their
safety drills seriously.
Like watching a fire
safety consultant burst
into flames in the OR
so they can practice extinguishing real flames. That's right. The con-
sultant lays down on a gurney wearing an asbestos vest. He places a
butane-soaked pad on his vest and — poof — touches a lighter to it.
"It's quite dramatic and gets the point across. It adds to the realism of
the drill," says Steven Vitcov, MD, the center's medical director. For
stopping at nothing to protect their patients, Presidio Surgery Center's
staff and physicians are this year's winner of the OR Excellence
Award in Patient Safety.
Serious scenarios
Live fires aside, the center's safety drills are
effective and educational because they're based
on plausible scenarios that use the clinical data
of patients they've cared for recently, like a
patient who presented with coronary artery dis-
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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5
O R E X C E L L E N C E AWA R D S O R E X C E L L E N C E AWA R D S
Patient Safety
Incredibly realistic drills and a staff of true believers
protect patients at the Presidio Surgery Center.
S p o n s o r e d b y
z DRILL TEAM Staff are put through the paces
during in-services that mimic actual emergencies.
Steven
Vitcov,
MD
