BACKGROUND: Communication and teamwork failures have frequently been identified as the root cause of adverse events and complications in surgery. Few studies have examined contextual factors that influence teams' non-technical skills (NTS) in surgery. The purpose of this prospective study was to identify and describe correlates of NTS. METHODS: We assessed NTS of teams and professional role at 2 hospitals using the revised 23-item Non-TECHnical Skills (NOTECHS) and its subscales (communication, situational awareness, team skills, leadership and decision-making). Over 6 months, 2 trained observers evaluated teams' NTS using a structured form. Interobserver agreement across hospitals ranged from 86% to 95%. Multiple regression models were developed to describe associations between operative time, team membership, miscommunications, interruptions, and total NOTECHS and subscale scores. RESULTS: 0.22, p<0.001). In all models, inverse relationships between the total number of miscommunications and total number of interruptions and teams' NTS were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Miscommunications and interruptions impact on team NTS performance.
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Gillespie et al. (2017) studied this question.