{"id":45427,"date":"2011-08-29T13:37:27","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T17:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=45427"},"modified":"2011-08-31T09:21:03","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T13:21:03","slug":"surgical-resident-committed-to-operating-room-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/08\/surgical-resident-committed-to-operating-room-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgical Resident Committed to Operating Room Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Lindsay Bliss shows the checklist that she designed to improve the culture of the operating room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Lindsay Bliss, fresh out of the UConn School of Medicine and into a surgical residency at the UConn Health Center, is determined to improve the culture of the operating room to maximize patient safety.<\/p>\n

An opportunity came along during her third year of medical school, while on her inpatient surgery experience at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was during this rotation that I learned about Saint Francis\u2019 involvement in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program<\/a> and met Dr. [Scott] Ellner,\u201d she says. Ellner is an assistant professor of surgery at the UConn School of Medicine and is Saint Francis\u2019 director of surgical quality.<\/p>\n

In a matter of months, Bliss had taken the student lead in a major OR patient safety project at Saint Francis. She would spend the next year collecting data in operating rooms for the project that would become known as \u201cOR Team Training on the Use of a Surgical Checklist to Improve Patient Outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile most fourth-year medical students were winding down and looking forward to Match Day, Lindsay was spending 8 to 10 hours a day in the operating room observing cases on her own time,\u201d Ellner says. \u201cShe is a star in the making.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative was to improve surgical outcomes by training OR staff on a standardized process with a surgical checklist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was also focused on cultivating communication skills in order to optimize transfer of information and address disruptive, safety-compromising behavior,\u201d Bliss says. \u201cThe idea was to observe behaviors in the OR and develop systems and strategies to improve them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Comprehensive<\/a>
Comprehensive Surgical Checklist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bliss observed about 100 cases to study the checklist\u2019s impact on communications. The data indicate use of the checklist contributed to a decrease in infections and postoperative complications: overall 30-day morbidity went from 21 percent to less than 7 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, this study used team training strategies to change the culture in the operating room,\u201d Ellner says. \u201cForty one-hour sessions were given to the operating room staff, from circulating nurses, recovery room nurses, scrub technologists and pre-op nurses, on how to have difficult conversations with other team members when things are not always going as planned. For example, a scrub technologist would address a surgeon in a polite, non-confrontational manner if there was an incident that occurred in the OR\u201d<\/p>\n

Bliss is the lead author of the paper on the first phase of the checklist project. She\u2019s presented the data to the Florida State Surgical Collaborative and given a poster presentation at the American College of Surgeons NSQIP Meeting in Boston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bliss\u2019 efforts earned her a Patient Safety Leadership Scholarship from the Saint Francis Department of Surgery. The scholarship was started with a donation from one of Ellner\u2019s patients, who wanted it to go toward patient safety and quality initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intention was to educate students and future leaders in health care,\u201d Ellner says. \u201cThe scholarship is a leadership fund for patient safety. Lindsay leads by example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible honor,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s nice for a gift from a patient to be used to refocus on patient safety and on getting medical students aware of patient safety. It\u2019s really important to train future generation of surgeons and clinicians in general to recognize patient safety issues and become advocates for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before graduating this spring, Bliss was among a group of UConn medical students who attended the second annual National Women in Surgery Career Symposium<\/a> at the University of South Florida in Clearwater.<\/p>\n

Bliss\u2019 work on the surgical safety checklist project represents the start of ongoing research to improve patient safety in the OR.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a preliminary study and there is much more work to be done,\u201d Ellner says. \u201cThe next phase will be engaging the surgeons and anesthesiologists for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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