Clinical audit on World Health Organization surgical safety checklist completion at Debre Berhan comprehensive specialized hospital: A prospective cohort study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Surgical care is an integral part of health care throughout the world. Surgical complications are occurred in 3–16% of surgical procedures. The WHO surgical safety checklist outlines essential standards of surgical care and has been shown to reduce complications and death associated with surgery. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the proper completion of the World Health Organization (WHO) surgical safety checklist. Method: A prospective observational study was conducted among 255 patients undergoing elective and emergency surgery from October 03, 2020 to March 28, 2020. Completeness rate of Sign-in, Time-out, and Sign-out domains was computed with SPSS 22.0 package. Result: During a period of six months, in our study, we only included the completion of 255 patients' checklist that undergo major operations were included in our study. Confirming patients’ identity, procedure and consent was completed in all patients (100%); the safety of anaesthesia machine and medications were check for all patients. Essential images were not displayed in all patients (100% missed). Conclusion: Overall completeness of the checklist in the sign in, time out and sign out period was good. The present study did not assess outcomes, but it is assumed that poor completeness puts patients at risk of perioperative complications. Highlights: