The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is a national quality partnership of organizations interested
in improving surgical care by significantly reducing surgical complications. Partners in SCIP believe that a
meaningful reduction in surgical complications depends on surgeons, anesthesiologists, perioperative
nurses, pharmacists, infection control professionals, and hospital executives working together to
intensify their commitment to making surgical care improvement a priority. If you were the administrator
in charge of reducing errors related to surgery, what strategies would you implement that enable the
different professionals (i.e., surgeons, anesthesiologists, preoperative nurses, pharmacists, infection
control professionals, and hospital executives) to receive training? What kind of training and
development activities would you implement to change the culture of the hospital in regard to reducing
patient care errors? What other HRM activities could be impacted by the training and collaboration?
Your replies to your classmates' threads must be substantive.
As much as we wish it was otherwise, human errors do occur. Errors that occur within the
healthcare industry could be potentially prevented if and when when strategies and trainings in
error prevention are implemented, enforced, and maintained. Worldwide, on average, there are
over 200 million surgeries performed [Kim151]. Unfortunately, there are also ongoing adverse
events that occur on an unacceptably high rate. Multiple initiatives have been created over the
past decade to address these ongoing safety issues, but they have not resolved what has been
occurring [Kim151]. The current surgical safety guidelines and checklists follow a more generic
guideline system, not being designed to address specific errors, patient safety and risk factors
based on the varied surgical subspecialties[Kim151]. To address the ongoing safety concerns,
these guidelines need to become more specific, adding processes to the existing basic safety
precautions, developed based on the specific surgical procedure being performed.
To develop a more specialized safety policy and procedures, identification of the problem
areas first need to be identified, determining the causes and defining the needed steps that would
either reduce or eliminate the cause(s). On example of this methodology is through the use of a
surgical safety checklist. The checklist ensures that each member of the surgical team is included
in the process, communicating with each other and identifying any gaps where errors could
occur. The checklist would include multiple steps, with a specific staff member identified prior
as being responsible for completing each step. First would be the nurse and/or anesthesiologist
confirming the patient’s identity, the location of surgery is to be performed, and what procedure
is being completed. Second would include each member of the surgical team identifying and
confirming their name and the role they will play in the surgery. The final step being full
communication between the surgeon(s), anesthesiologist, and nursing team, identifying any
potential critical events and then confirming the procedure to be performed as well as all
instruments and equipment to be used in the surgery [Kim151]. Following this level of detail in
the checklist would then ensure an open level of communication between all team members to
reduce the chance of any errors and improve patient safety.
There are varying training methods and development activities that when implemented
assist in improving the safety culture of a hospital or clinic. Simulation training is one of many
available options. Research studies have found that through the use of this form of training the
connection to this type of learning is one that is both immersive and experiential [Agg10].
Simulation training assists healthcare professionals by using a variety of enactments to help
recreate different scenarios that have either actually or could potentially occur, with the goal of
showing how these may be presented, improving the system performance levels. Improving
system performance is known to significantly help reduce medical errors. Findings have shown
that through the use of this method of system improvements a reduction in error rates and
improve the quality of healthcare provided have already occurred [Agg10]. Furthermore,
simulation training is beneficial as it assists healthcare professionals practice these different
procedure methods, teaching clinical skills, and improving team training.
Additional activities that would provide positive impacts from the training provided
would include staff evaluations and career development. The use of an evaluation training
session provides a basis to evaluate the effectiveness of prior and future training sessions to
determine if they have been or would be beneficial. During the evaluation process, if the
identified objectives are found to not be obtained, Human Resources would then be able to
determine a specific type of training was not effective, to either remove or modify that option.
Career development is also another activity that can be impacted by training. The use of career
development assists employees in gaining knowledge and skills to be used in the future to benefit
themselves as well as their healthcare organization [Pyn11]. A lack of skills and/or knowledge
needed to perform specific duties would be more easily identified during training sessions,
preventing this lack of knowledge from affecting a patient, and can then be addressed
accordingly [Pyn11].
Determining ways to improve surgical care and reducing patient errors in hospitals is an
area that should be addressed in every healthcare organization and is an ongoing need. “We all
stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep
their whole body in check” (James 3:2, NIV). As Christians, we must accept that each of us will
make mistakes, but we should also accept that we are to learn from them. God will direct our
paths, but it is up to us to follow that direction.
References
Aggarwal, R., Mytton, O. T., Derbrew, M., Hananel, D., Heydenburg, M., Issenberg, B., . . .
Reznick, R. (2010). Training and simulation for patient safety. Quality & Safety in Health
Care, 19(Suppl 2), i34-i43.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1136/qshc.2009.038562
Kim, F. J., da Silva, R. D., Gustafson, D., Nogueira, L., Harlin, T., & Paul, D. L. (2015). Current
issues in patient safety in surgery: A review. Patient Safety in Surgery, 9(1), 26-35.
doi:10.1186/s13037-015-0067-4
