Background: The Surgical Safety Checklist consists of three parts: sign-in (completed before anesthesia is administered), time-out (completed before the skin incision is made), and sign-out (completed immediately after the skin is closed or before the patient leaves the operating room). This study aims to assess the adherence to the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist and identify the issues preventing its proper use in the operating theatres of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: The observational clinical audit was conducted in Surgical Unit I, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Compliance with the surgical safety checklist was observed before and after the educational intervention. After completion of the clinical audit, the operating theatre staff were asked about the barriers to compliance with the surgical safety checklist using an interview sheet. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for quantitative variables, whereas frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables using SPSS version 27.0. Results: Compliance with all steps of the surgical safety checklist improved after an educational intervention, with the highest improvement in compliance (66.7%) observed for the Sign-out step, specifically the question “Count of sponges and needles & instruments complete?” Moreover, filling of the patient board and documentation of the procedure in the patient file were also improved. Lack of awareness and inadequate training to follow the surgical safety checklist were the most common barriers to compliance with the checklist. Conclusion: Using the surgical safety checklist will not only make patient care safer but also strengthen teamwork and improve the department’s working culture.
Riaz et al. (Fri,) studied this question.