Construction of a tool to measure perceptions about the use of the World Health Organization Safe Surgery Checklist Program.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended greater attention to patient safety, particularly regarding preventable adverse events. The Safe Surgery Saves Lives (CSSV) program was released recommending the application of a surgical checklist for items on the safety of procedures. The checklist implementation reduced the hospital mortality rate in the first 30 days. In Brazil, we found no studies of anesthesiologists' adherence to the practice of the checklist. OBJECTIVE: The main objective was to develop a tool to measure the attitude of anesthesiologists and residents regarding the use of checklist in the perioperative period. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional study performed during the 59th CBA in BH/MG, whose participants were enrolled physicians who responded to the questionnaire with quantitative epidemiological approach. RESULTS: From the sample of 459 participants who answered the questionnaire, 55% were male, 44.2% under 10 years of practice, and 15.5% with over 30 years of medical school completion. Seven items with 78% reliability coefficient were selected. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups of anesthesiologists who reported using the instrument in less or more than 70% of patients, indicating that the attitude questionnaire discriminates between these two groups of professionals. CONCLUSIONS: The seven items questionnaire showed adequate internal consistency and a well-defined factor structure, and can be used as a tool to measure the anesthesiologists' perceptions about the checklist usefulness and applicability.