Ιnvestigation of application of quality criteria in operating room
Kostantinia Karathanasi, Pavlos Sarafis, Maria Malliarou, Sofia Zyga, Panagiotis Prezerakos
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Publication year:
2012
Authors:
- Karathanasi Kostantinia, Major, RN, MSc, PhDc , 404 Military Hospital, Larisa, Greece
- Sarafis Pavlos, Assistant Professor, Technological University of Cyprus
- Malliarou Maria, Mayor, RN, MSc, PhD, 404 Military Hospital, Larisa, Greece.
- Zyga Sofia, Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, University of Peloponnese, Sparti, Greece
- Prezerakos Panagiotis, Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, University of Peloponnese, Sparti, Greece
Keywords index:
Pages: 63-70
Abstract:
Introduction: Perhaps the most demanding part of the hospital, operating room is a very stressful place, staffed with personnel that must have special knowledge and skills to meet the daily challenges. At a time when internationally there is the need to reform health systems (due to problems of organization and the need to reduce costs), the goal of providing quality health care seems very difficult but not utopian. It is required to use of protocols and quality indicators that will be the base for setting and measuring quality of care.
Aim: of this study was to investigate the knowledge and application of protocols and criteria - indicators according to WHO that define quality care in the operating room
Material and Methods: The survey was conducted through the use of a questionnaire and included 136 nurses. The questionnaire included six questions based on quality criteria in OR, getting for an answer "yes” – "no” as defined by the 2007 document of the OECD countries (OECD Health Technical Paper No. 18 in 2004 Selecting Indicators for Patient Safety at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries). Statistical analysis was carried out with SPSS 19 statistical package.
Results: 106 women and 47 men participated in the study with a mean age of 35.10 years. In 58.2% of cases there were no forms for recording the surgical complications, and more than half of nurses (55.3%) were unaware of the safety checklist as defined by the WHO, and from 75 who knew it only 42.7% used it. The assessment of quality of care from the patient was not done at 60.1%, while only 13.7% were giving a questionnaire before and after surgery.
Conclusion: Greek nurses' negligence was found in the implementation of quality protocols that their use is a guarantee of patients safety. Furthermore it seems that patient's quality care is not appreciated, showing that Greek healthcare professionals behave as not having the need to explore the patients’ views about how well they do their work. The new reality requires from the Greek nursing family to use quality indicators that according Health Care Quality Indicators Project of the OECD, leads to more efficient resource management together with quality care.
