Staff attitudes to and compliance with the use of a surgical safety checklist

OBJECTIVES: To investigate staff attitudes to the use of a surgical safety checklist in a small animal operating room and to gain insight into barriers to use. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was designed and used to assess attitudes of 36 operating room personnel to the checklist. The checklist was retrospectively audited on 984 patients over an 8-month period to investigate compliance. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 100% of operating room personnel. Attitudes to the checklist were positive, with 83.4% agreeing that it improved teamwork and 100% agreed that the checklist improved patient safety, reduced error and was best practice. Most personnel (94%) believed that a completed checklist was used for every procedure. Several barriers were highlighted, including issues of hierarchy and team-working and lack of training. 984 checklists were used during the study period with 83 (8.4%) being fully completed. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Surgical safety checklists have potential to improve patient safety in veterinary operating rooms. However, appropriate design and implementation are critical and surgeons should endeavour to support checklist use.