- On June 25, 2008 the World Health Organization launched its "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign.
- On December 20, 2008, Don Berwick calls upon all hospitals participating in the IHI 5 Million Lives Campaign to also participate in "The Sprint" by adding "one more change at a breathtakingly short time" - "adopt and use the WHO Checklist in at least one OR in every hospital in the next 90 days."
- The Indiana Hospital Association recently posted on its "Patient Safety Update" webpage that it is supporting the campaign. "To participate, hospitals need only test the list in one operating room, by one surgical team, one time before April 1." It also says that Indiana is only one of a few states to have committed to testing the checklist.
The scope of the WHO's Checklist for Safe Surgery is broader than the Joint Commission's Universal Protocol to Prevent Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure and Wrong Person Surgery (tm).
Joint Commission's Universal Protocol: Universal Protocol
WHO's Checklist: WHO Checklist
WHO's website (with additional tools and resources): WHO Safe Surgery Website
IHI Campaign website: IHI Campaign Site
How long do you think it will be before the Joint Commission starts to adopt elements of the WHO's checklist?
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The Joint Commission has made several revisions to their Universal Protocol and are closer to the WHO list than one might believe. Check out the 2009 rendition to see for yourself. http://www.jointcommission.org/NR/rdonlyres/31666E86-E7F4-423E-9BE8-F05BD1CB0AA8/0/HAP_NPSG.pdf
ReplyDeleteWHO has added a few items such antibiitoc prophylaxis that many facilities in the country have already adopted to ensure compliance with public reported indicators. I think the real question is how long before we begin to see a decrease in wrong procedures being performed. I have heard many complaints regarding Universal Protocol, it is too time consuming, it is too perscriptive.
Root cause analysis of procedures being performed on the wrong site or wrong pateint have boiled down to this, either, not everyone present at the begining of the procedure was fully engaged in the 'time out' process or someone was afraid to speak up when they had concerns. We still have much work to do before this senntinel event is erradicated.