Presented By: John R. Clarke, M.D.
September 2018

Effective operating team members are not only in the operating room to do their assigned job. They are making sure the patient has the safest experience possible. This means they must watch out for each other for the patient’s ultimate benefit. To do this, they must all have the same shared goal, shared mental model and situational awareness. They must feel empowered to voice concerns and have any concerns respectfully addressed. These principles are illustrated by in-depth discussions of three “never events:” retained surgical items, surgical fires and wrong-site surgery.

Objectives:

• List five characteristics of high reliability organizations
• Give the surgeon’s main role in preventing retained surgical items
• Recognize the main technique for preventing surgical fires
• Identify two basic reasons for wrong site surgery