Prevention of retained surgical items through education

Abstract

<p>Incorrect surgical counts and retained surgical items are preventable errors that compromise patient safety. The literature suggests that surgical counts may be affected by multiple variables. This capstone project sought to exclusively explore the influence of education on incorrect surgical counts in the operating room. Thirteen surgical staff members at a Midwest regional hospital participated in this project. Every staff member possessed previous knowledge and experience with how counts were performed and have executed this task with great frequency. Reinforcement of pre-operative and post-operative surgical count education was conducted with the intended outcome of reducing incorrect count percentages. To assess the impact of this intervention, the capstone project analyzed incorrect count percentages prior to education and after education over an eight-week time frame. The deficit in knowledge was assessed by a six-question survey given to the general surgical team before the presentation. A post-education survey and gap analysis tool was given after the presentation to assess what the staff knew about the hospital&rsquo;s counting policy and procedure. Stagnant percentages before and after the education intervention revealed that education alone does not impact incorrect counts. However, findings do suggest that education increases a participant&rsquo;s confidence in their count policy and helps define clear roles of the team during the counting process.</p>