Improved communication in the operating theatre has been one of the most noticeable results of using the World Health Organisation surgical safety checklist at Dunedin Hospital for the past year.
That is the view of clinical leader for anaesthesia (Otago) Dr Paul Templer, who said one of the requirements on the list was for all theatre staff to introduce themselves by name and role before the first incision.
In a busy teaching hospital, where team members can change frequently, the introductions were good for students' involvement.
Once a team member's name was known they could be involved more, asked questions and asked "to do things", he said.
The list was also good for reminding those in the room about things such as known allergies to drugs such as penicillin.
The three-section checklist, which has increasingly been seen as the accepted standard for hospitals, is designed to see that the right patient gets the right operation, equipment counts are completed and someone has checked the amount of blood likely to be required for the procedure.
There are specific checks for before the patient is anaesthetised, before the surgery starts and before the patient leaves the operating theatre.
Dr Templer said while with any checklist there was a worry people could become blase over time, he felt one of the strengths of the system was that the checks were read out and had to be responded to aloud. When the checklist was introduced a year ago, there had been some "teething problems", mainly to do with the timing of it.
There have been some additions to it, including a check for whether protection against deep-vein thrombosis was required and whether a swab known as a throat pack had been used.
Dr Templer said he felt behaviour in operating theatres had improved considerably from what it was 30 years ago.
Then, some surgeons routinely did not behave very well, but there was much less tolerance of "prima donna" behaviour today and better mechanisms for dealing with concerns.
The checklist is used at both Dunedin and Mercy Hospitals.
