PATIENT SAFETY AND THE SURGEON PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

PATIENT SAFETY AND THE SURGEON: PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Among medical specialties, surgery is one of the most invasive healthcare interventions that a patient can experience. More than 100 million people worldwide undergo surgical treatment every year. Problems associated with surgical safety in resource- rich countries account for half of the avoidable adverse events that result in death or disability . The ‘more than one cause’ theory of accident causation can be aptly applied to many aspects of surgical patient care during the perioperative period. However, irrespective of the Sir Alfred Cuschieri , b.1938, Maltese surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Surgery , Dundee, UK. - Patient safety at the coal face /uni25CF /uni25CF /uni25CF /uni25CF - /uni25CF safety event or issue, the surgeon as the likely senior team leader will play a key role in reporting and communicating these events with patients and carers, other team members and hospital administration. This is particularly so for those coal-face ’ errors where patients identify the sur - so-called ‘ geon as being responsible for a defined episode of care. Cuschieri and others have described coal-face errors as those that can potentially be committed by surgeons during the care of their patients and include: /uni25CF diagnostic and management errors; /uni25CF resuscitation errors; /uni25CF prophylaxis errors; /uni25CF prescription/parenteral administration errors; /uni25CF situation awareness, identification and teamwork errors; /uni25CF technical and operative errors.

Communicating well with patients and their carers Understanding situational awareness and emotional intelligence Effective teamworking Professionalism, as another essential component of patient safety System approach to clinical risk management events and patients’ complaints