Authors (including presenting author) :
Li PC, Lo KK, Chan SMM (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Day Surgery Centre, QEH
Introduction :
Sign Out” is the final phase in the “Surgical Safety Checklist”, which has been advocated by WHO since 2008. The Checklist provides a tool for minimizing all avoidable risks endangering the lives and well-being of surgical patients. However, as a major acute hospital and trauma centre of HA, “Sign Out” was not available in the Operating Theatre of QEH before 2016. Therefore, the Department of Anesthesiology and Operating Theater Services liaised with Day Surgery Center of Queen Elizabeth Hospital to launch a project performing pilot study of “Sign out” from October 2016 to February 2017. After the pilot study, “Sign Out” procedure has been broadly used in Day Surgery Centre of QEH. A progress report of “Sign Out” procedure in Day Surgery Centre has been updated from 2017 to 2019.
Objectives :
1. To evaluate the effectiveness of “Sign Out” in maintaining patient’s safety.
2. To explore the attitude of anaesthetists, surgeons and nurses in adoption of “Sign Out”.
Methodology :
The Re-AIM framework (Glasgow, Vogt & Boles, 1999) is employed as the methodology. The Re-AIM framework follows five elements in a logical sequence, beginning with “Adoption” and “Reach”, followed by “Implementation”, “Efficacy”, and finishing with “Maintenance”. Besides, a set of questionnaires have been conducted to evaluate the perception and attitude towards “Sign Out” among the healthcare professionals and the results are discussed in the report.
Result & Outcome :
Results: After full implementation of the Surgical Safety Checklist, there is no specimen discrepancy, no patient discharge to the wrong ward, no retained foreign body and no wrong site surgery in Day Surgery Centre of QEH. In addition, the data collected shows a positive trend towards “Sign out”. Conclusion: The report has proven that “Sign out” procedure achieved a positive outcome that safeguarded a safe and uneventful perioperative journey.
