KEY POINTS:
Auckland surgeons have a new pre-operation checklist that asks whether they are about to operate on the right part of the body - and even whether they have the right patient.
Auckland City Hospital is one of eight hospitals worldwide testing the 90-second checklist - a single sheet of A4 paper - as part of a World Health Organisation trial.
And while some of the questions seem straightforward, it is hoped the checklist can reduce surgical errors.
Nearly 13 per cent of hospital admissions in New Zealand are associated with an adverse healthcare event before or during hospitalisation.
In a third of those cases, the event is considered highly preventable, and in 15 per cent the outcome is permanent disability or death.
Dr Bill Berry, of the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States and a leader of the WHO project, said in Auckland yesterday that it was hoped to significantly reduce surgical mistakes.
"The idea is that of the things that go wrong in the operating room, potentially half might benefit from this kind of intervention."
Numerous safety checks are already made, including on identity, surgical site and counts to ensure no instruments or sponges are left inside patients.
The new checklist for before and after surgery will mean a nurseverbally confirming that the right patient is on the operating table and that the bodily site marked for surgery is the correct one.
It will repeat some existing checks, but it is hoped that grouping them together on one A4 sheet for a last-minute confirmation by one nurse who speaks to all the surgeons, anaesthetists, theatre nurses and anaesthetic technicians involved will head off many potential errors.
The form requires the nurse to confirm that 20 matters are in order, some of them straightforward, like identity, some complex, like asking if thesurgeon has reviewed the "critical or unexpected steps".
The anaesthetist running the trial at Auckland City Hospital, Professor Alan Merry, said he had personal experience of how vital it was to make one last check on the patient'sidentity.
"Within the last two years, I had the wrong patient put on the trolley, despite the normal, routine checks."
Two patients were having heart surgery - one a bypass, the other a valve replacement. Their identities had been checked in the pre-surgical area, but they were subsequently switched.
Professor Merry picked up the simple but potentially horrific mistake by his practice of checking the patient's identity bracelet. This was after the patient had been sedated, but before anaesthesia had been administered.
