Patient safety in oncology surgery: experience of the São Paulo State Cancer Institute

Abstract

Patient safety concerns in surgery are increasing. The frequency of surgery-related adverse events and errors is high, and most could be avoided. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) proposed the Universal Protocol (UP-JCAHO) for preventing wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong person surgery. In Brazil, very few health-care institutions have adopted this Protocol. Thus, there is a need to improve its dissemination and assess its effectiveness. The aim of the present study was to report the experiences of the Sao Paulo State Cancer Institute (ICESP, acronym in Portuguese) in implementing the UP-JCAHO. The Protocol comprises three steps: pre-operative verification process, marking the operative site and Time out immediately before starting the procedure. The ICESP surgical center (SC) has been functioning since November 2008. The UP-JCAHO is applied to all surgeries. A total 1019 surgeries were performed up to June 2009. No errors or adverse events were registered. The implementation of the UP-JCAHO is simple. It can be a useful tool to prevent error and adverse events in SC.