Patients’ and healthcare workers’ recommendations for a surgical patient safety checklist – a qualitative study

摘要

Background: Patients’ involvement in patient safety has increased in healthcare. Use of checklists may improvepatient outcome in surgery, though few have attempted to engage patients’ use of surgical checklist. To identifyrisk elements of complications based on patients’ and healthcare workers’ experiences is warranted. This study aimsto identify what the patients and healthcare workers find to be the risk elements that should be included in apatient-driven surgical patient safety checklist.Method: A qualitative study design where post-operative patients, surgeons, ward physicians, ward nurses, andsecretaries from five surgical specialties took part in focus group interviews. Eleven focus groups were conductedincluding 25 post-operative patients and 27 healthcare workers at one tertiary teaching hospital and onecommunity hospital in Norway. Based on their experiences, participants were asked to identify perceived risksbefore and after surgery. The interviews were analysed using content analysis.Results: Safety risk factors were categorised as pre-operative information: pre-operative preparations, post-operativeinformation, post-operative plans and follow-up. The subcategories under pre-operative information andpreparations were: contact information, medication safety, health status, optimising health, dental status, readinformation, preparation two weeks before surgery, inform your surgical ward, planning your own discharge,preparation on admission and just before surgery. The subcategories under post-operative information, furtherplans and follow-up were: prevention and complications, restriction and activity, medication safety, pain relief,stomach functions, further care and appointments. Both healthcare workers and patients express the need for asurgical patient safety checklist.Conclusion: A broad spectre of risk elements for a patient safety checklist were identified. Developing a surgicalsafety checklist based on these risk elements might reduce complications and unwanted errors.