The main aim of this thesis is to show what is made, in Italy and particularly in the area of Emilia Romagna, about the patient’s safety in the operating compartment. A research has been made on databases like Cinhal and Pubmed, and it showed 134 useful articles, but only 15 of them have been effectively used.
It has been used especially the book published by WHO in 2009 “WHO Guidelines for safe surgery 2009: safe surgery saves lives”, and other documents by The Health Ministry. A great part of this work consists in describing how important is a new and innovatory instrument: the checklist in the operating theatre (what is it, how it must be used, how it must not be used, who is in charge of it).
Besides, it has been underlined the importance of communication in complex environments, such as operating theatres.
In short, it’s impossible to eliminate mistakes in surgery, even in very qualified medical systems, as it’s the human factor the main responsible for this.
But it’s possible to pursue safety aims, thanks to the involvement of the whole medical team and thanks to instruments like the checklist. In many hospitals that used the checklist the rate of complications has lowered from 11% to 7%, the mortality rate lowered from 1,5% to 0,8%, and the infections rate lowered drastically from 88% to 33%. If it were used on a global scale, and used correctly, it had the potential to prevent a lot of deaths and invalidating complications. So, the checklist use should be increased in all medical contexts, and each member of the medical team should learn how to use it meticulously.
