Perioperative provider safety in the pandemic: Development, implementation and evaluation of an adjunct COVID-19 Surgical Patient Checklist

Authors: Starr, Nichole E ;

Moore, Jolene;

Shreckengost, Constance S Harrell;

Fernandez, Katie;

Ambulkar, Reshma ;

Capo-Chichi, Nina;

Varallo, John E;

Ademuyiwa, Adesoji O;

Krouch, Sophallyda;

Rana, Pankaj Singh;

Ingabire, JC Allen;

Weiser, Thomas G;

Mammo, Tihitena Negussie;

Evans, Faye M

Source: Anaesthesia and Intensive Care

Full text

: https://doi.org/10.1177/0310057X221092455

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained surgical systems worldwide and placed healthcare providers at risk in their workplace. To protect surgical care providers caring for patients with COVID-19, in May 2020 we developed a COVID-19 Surgical Patient Checklist (C19 SPC), including online training materials, to accompany the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist. In October 2020, an online survey was conducted via partner and social media networks to understand perioperative clinicians’ intraoperative practice and perceptions of safety while caring for COVID-19 positive patients and gain feedback on the utility of C19 SPC. Descriptive statistics were used to characterise responses by World Bank income classification. Qualitative analysis was performed to describe respondents' perceptions of C19 SPC and recommended modifications. Respondents included 539 perioperative clinicians from 63 countries. One-third of respondents reported feeling unsafe in their workplace due to COVID-19 with significantly higher proportions in low (39.8%) and lower-middle (33.9%) than higher income countries (15.6%). The most cited concern was the risk of COVID-19 transmission to self, colleagues and family. A large proportion of respondents (65.3%) reported that they had not used C19 SPC, yet 83.8% of these respondents felt it would be useful. Of those who reported that they had used C19 SPC, 62.0% stated feeling safer in the workplace because of its use. Based on survey results, modifications were incorporated into a subsequent version. Our survey findings suggest that perioperative clinicians report feeling unsafe at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, adjunct tools such as the C19 SPC can help to improve perceived safety.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Cite as

Starr, N., Moore, J., Shreckengost, C., Fernandez, K., Ambulkar, R., Capo-Chichi, N., Varallo, J., Ademuyiwa, A., Krouch, S., Rana, P., Ingabire, J., Weiser, T., Mammo, T. & Evans, F. 2022, 'Perioperative provider safety in the pandemic: Development, implementation and evaluation of an adjunct COVID-19 Surgical Patient Checklist', Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, 50(6), pp. 457-467. https://doi.org/10.1177/0310057X221092455

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0310057X221092455

Repository URI: https://hdl.handle.net/2164/21474