The debriefing is invaluable to promoting patient safety, but is often
skipped by busy surgical teams, who immediately move on from the
just-finished case to focus on prepping the next patient for surgery,
says Ms. Brown. She suggests you emphasize to your staff the impor-
tance of meeting after cases. Let them know that effective debriefings
should take only a few minutes to complete and can help identify con-
cerns that need to be resolved and ways to improve patient care mov-
ing forward. Be sure to have a method in place to record and address
the concerns that staff bring up during debriefings.
Always aware
"Engage patients in friendly conversation as soon as they enter the
OR," says Ms. Brown. "Introduce them to every member of the surgi-
cal team and ask about their personal lives."
The informal conversations serve the dual purpose of putting
patients at ease and establishing brief but personal connections with
nurses, techs and anesthesia providers, who will feel more invested in
caring for the patient.
Ms. Brown's staff huddles every morning to discuss the day's sched-
ule and safety issues that might need to be addressed. They also gath-
er again in the early afternoon to assess how the day is progressing
and to renew their focus on patient safety for the remaining cases.
Both huddles keep the team focused and talking about safe patient
care from the first case to the last.
Share near-misses or adverse events that occur in your facility to
heighten staff's awareness of how errors can happen and to prevent
complacency from creeping in. "Surgical professionals always advo-
cate for their patients," says Ms. Brown. "But they sometimes have to
be reminded about what can go wrong if they're not always thinking
and talking about maintaining a safe environment."
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