Development and Implementation of the Checklist for Safe Surgery

Prepared by: Yoolwon Jeong, MD, MScCountry: Cambodia

Yoolwon Jeong, MD, MSc HLDI

One of the main focus of my work here is the "development and implementation of the Checklist for Safe Surgery" of which the nationwide roll-out I am striving to witness before I leave for Manila. So far, the progress is well on track and we now have a Khmer version of the checklist which we have pilot-tested in a few hospitals.

Checklist for Safe Surgery is a set of surgical safety standards that can be used in the operation room to prevent surgical errors. It is a safety check procedure to ensure that steps to promote surgical safety are done in a systematic, timely way. Based on WHO surgical safety checklist, a group of Cambodian professionals revised and adapted the checklist to be applicable to Cambodian hospitals.

Yoolwon Jeong, MD, MSc HLDI

The 1st draft of the pathway is being pilot-tested in selected hospitals, one of which is the National Paediatric Hospital.

Yoolwon Jeong, MD, MSc HLDI

For the implementation of the checklist to be successful and sustainable, it is important that different group of people in the operation room - surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses - cooperate and coordinate. In the photo, the surgical staff at the National Paediatric Hospital are doing a practice role

Yoolwon Jeong, MD, MSc HLDI

play in preparation for the pilot-test. One important item on the checklist is to confirm the identity of the patient so that operation is not done on a wrong patient. For paediatric patients, often their parents or guardian has to confirm instead, which is why a real patient and her father - who happened to be standing in front of the meeting room - also participated in the role play.

Not related to surgical checklist, but I captured this wonderful moment at the lobby of the National Paediatric Hospital when a mother is trying to see how much her daughter has grown.

After more meetings, site visits and another round of pilot test, the checklist is planned to be rolled out

nationwide in early February.

Yoolwon Jeong, MD, MSc HLDI