Safe Surgery Checklist | National Surgical Quality Improvement Program | Enhanced Recovery After Surgery
Since 2013, the Surgery SCN has worked alongside patients, families, operational leaders and other health partners to address gaps and operational pressures and develop provincial standards and clinical best practices that improve:
The SCN has also supported implementation of quality improvements and initiatives to address capacity pressures, access, and quality of surgical care in Alberta.
Several of these success stories are highlighted below.
The Safe Surgery Checklist is a communication tool used by all members of the surgical team, including patients, to reduce the number of preventable errors and adverse events. The checklist helps focus the team on patient safety at three critical stages of a surgical procedure or intervention, preventing medical errors for the nearly 300,000 surgeries in Alberta each year.
As part of this program, surgical centres throughout Alberta use clinical data to identify quality improvement opportunities at a local level and implement practice changes to reduce surgical complications and improve patient outcomes.
Surgical care in Alberta is getting better and patients are going home sooner as a result of this innovative patient-centered approach. ERAS uses international guidelines that provide a consistent way of managing patient care before, during and after surgery.
Drawing on best practices and evidence from around the world, ERAS helps patients stay strong physically and mentally, spend less time in hospital, and experience fewer complications, while reducing healthcare costs.
