Surgical Team Safety Checklist

To ensure a uniform approach to checking patient identification and matching that patient to their intended surgical intervention the Surgical Team Safety Checklist has been developed. 

Purpose of the checklist

The purpose of the Surgical Team Safety Checklist is to:

  • establish a uniform approach to checking Patient Identification and matching that patient to their intended surgical intervention, across the public health care sector
  • guide the development of a system which facilitates the correct identification of patients prior to the commencement of a surgical procedure, thereby minimising the possibility of a wrong surgery incident
  • increase the awareness of all relevant staff, both clinical and non-clinical, patients and the public of the importance of correct patient identification, matching that patient to their intended care and the risk to patient safety when this is not achieved
  • provide governance which clearly outlines the responsibilities of individuals and health service in relation to the Surgical Team Safety Checklist.

SA Health resources

The Surgical Team Safety Checklist Policy Directive and checklist apply to all SA Health employees and persons who provide or assist in the provision of surgical services on behalf of SA Health.

To assist implementation of the policy and checklist the following tools are available:

Health units may wish to the following tools to assist them to evaluate whether the surgical team safety checklist has been successfully embedded into practice.

The observations should be conducted unobtrusively by a member of the Senior Theatre Team and include a sampling of cases across all clinical specialties.

Contact

Clinical Governance Unit
Email:  Health.DHWClinicalGovernanceEnquiries@sa.gov.au