Surgical Safety Checklists are Under Utilized in Ambulatory Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Publication date: Available online 21 July 2017
Source:Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Author(s): Archana Viswanath, Andras Balint, Robert E. Johnson, Morton B. Rosenberg, Daniel Oreadi
PurposeThe objective of this study was to determine the attitudes towards and the prevalence of surgical safety checklist in ambulatory oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) practice.MethodsThe investigators designed and implemented a cross-sectional study and enrolled a random sample of oral-maxillofacial surgeons. The predictor variable was years removed from residency. The primary outcome was the prevalence of surgical safety checklist usage in ambulatory OMS practice. The secondary outcome was to determine whether surgeons whom do not currently use a checklist would be willing to do so if provided with one. Other demographic variables included age, gender, location of practice, type of practice, and number of ambulatory procedures performed per week. Appropriate uni- and bivariate statistics were computed and the levels of significance set at 0.05; 95% confidence intervals were also calculated.ResultsThe study sample was composed of 120 clinicians. 42% of respondents reported that they were not using a surgical safety checklist for ambulatory surgery. 93% of those respondents not currently using a checklist reported they would consider implementing a surgical safety checklist in their practice if provided with one. 45.3% of surgeons performing more than 30 procedures a week reported not using a surgical safety checklist. The majority (67.9%) of respondents whom had completed OMS training greater than 20 years ago reported not using a checklist in their practice.ConclusionAccording to our survey, the majority of practicing oral-maxillofacial surgeons do not currently use surgical safety checklists. Although the response rate was only 12%, the survey does reflect a clear lack of use of checklists among practicing oral-maxillofacial surgeons despite the widespread acceptance in the medical community.



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