Effect of Surgical Safety Checklist on Mortality of Surgical Patients in the α University Hospitals

Background & Aims: Patient safety is one of the indicators of risk management in clinical governance system. Surgical care is one of the most sophisticated medical care in the hospitals. So it is not surprising that nearly half of the adverse events, 66% were related to surgery. Pre-flight aircraft Inspection model is starting point for designing surgical safety checklist that use for audit procedure. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the use of surgical safety checklist on surgical patients mortality and complications. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective descriptive study. This study was conducted in 2012 in the North West of Iran. The population consisted of patients who had undergoing surgery in α university of medical science`s hospital which have surgical department. In this study, 1125 patients underwent surgery within 3 months were studied. Data collection tool was designed based on WHO model and Surgcical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program(SCOAP). Data analysis was performed using the SPSS-20 statistical software and logistic regression analysis was used to calculate P values for each comparison. Results: No significant differences between patients in the two periods (before and after) There was. All complications rate reduced from 11 percent to 4 percent after the intervention by checklist (p<0.001). In the all hospitals mortality rate was decreased from 3.44% to 1.3% (p <0.003). Overall rate of surgical site infection and unplanned return to the operating room was reduced (p<0.001 and p<0.046). Conclusion: Many people every year due to lack of safety in hospitals, lose their lives. Despite the risks, such as leaving surgery sets in patient body and wrong surgery is due to lack of proper safety programs during surgery. By using safety checklist in all hospitals mortality rate and complications was reduced but this reduction was extremely in α3 hospital (from 5.2% to 1.48%).