Measuring Briefing and Checklist Compliance in Surgery: A Tool for Quality Improvement

Operating room briefings improve patient outcomes; however, implementation and methods to measure are lacking. A briefing audit tool was developed with 4 domains: briefing logistics, briefing basics, specific briefing content, and briefing participation. The tool evaluated preoperative briefings across surgical services at an academic medical center. Sixty-three preoperative briefings were observed. Introduction by name and role occurred in 15% of cases. There was a wide variation in discussion of the critical goals of the surgical procedure among services D (100%), A (26%), B (19%), and C (0%). Participation in the briefing was variable among stakeholders and between services. Verbal contributions were variable across all roles ranging from 65% (surgeons) to 11% (trainees and surgical technologist). Preoperative briefing compliance is variable. Deficiencies varied between service lines, possibly highlighting the need for service-specific customization of the briefing tool in surgery. This tool is a practical method for the study of briefing implementation.

Source: American Journal of Medical Quality - October 22, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Johnston, F. M., Tergas, A. I., Bennett, J. L., Valero, V., Morrissey, C. K., Fader, A. N., Hobson, D. B., Weaver, S. J., Rosen, M. A., Wick, E. C. Tags: Articles Source Type: research