Voice-Care In Partnership With:
Surgical Workflow
Voice-Care in the Operating Theatre
The Voice-Care Surgical Workflow enables the verbal recording of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist before, during and at the end of a procedure, enabling easier and faster compliance for clinicians, whilst vastly increasing positive patient outcomes.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist was mandated for use in January 2009, and is now in standard use across the UK and worldwide. It has helped to reduce surgical complications by a third since its inception within the facilities in which it is used.
But what happens when it isn’t used to its full extent?
Common WHO Surgical Safety Checklist Issues
With audit processes still being a requirement, as is commonplace with all safety streams in highrisk industries, in-depth discussions with leading surgical clinicians and Heads of Governance and ICUs within a major London-based Trust uncovered several checklist issues:
Underutilisation
The checklist was often underutilised and viewed as ‘just another tick-box exercise’.
There was a general unawareness of its purpose and content and some clinicians stated that they were unsure whether any or what kind of documentation was occurring.
Data Audits
The checklist is largely dependent on clinicians filling out patient data on paper forms, often several hours after a procedure has taken place.
Hand-written patient data was frequently inadequate, incorrect and/or illegible.
Patient Notes
The variations in how patient data notes were written often led to notes being misread or misinterpreted.
The storage of notes was also an issue, with checklists being recorded and stored in a number of different places, making ascertaining their location difficult and time-consuming.
"The Voice-Care solution is a game-changer. It doesn’t look at anything in isolation, we’re not talking just about human factors, we’re talking about Resource Management, we’re talking about patient safety."
Dr Sadie Syed, Consultant Anaesthetist,
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT)
How The Voice-Care Surgical Workflow Can Help
Ensures 100% WHO Surgical Safety Checklist compliance
Standardisation & simple usage for all clinicians
All notes are instantly recorded and uploaded directly to the patient record
Removes the need for person evaluation in the governance process
Addresses human factor issues surrounding a complex invasive procedure
Ensures the surgical team stops & adheres to the sign in / time out procedure
Provides real-time evidentiary documentation, e.g. ultrasound images / videos
Helps to avoid potential litigation risks
Enables automated data analysis for audit purposes
Enables access to accurate, real-time incident information
Saves on time & manpower
Voice-Care Standardises
Enables clinicians to perform a pre-planned, standardised workflow
Enforces standardisation of entry via the options presented
Directs order of actions & results
Collects & stores data in a standard way
Voice-Care Harmonises
Brings standardisation to differing workflow interpretations
Manages the briefing of the user about what is expected
Records sign in, procedure start & end time in real time
Allows comparisons between procedures performed by different users regardless of location
Voice-Care Educates
Guides workers through the process
Uses subject matter to create workflows
Schedules and documents
Voice-Care Swabs Counting Application
In addition to the Voice-Care Surgical Workflow, the
Voice-Care Swabs Counting Application mitigates the risk
of any swabs being left inside a patient, preventing both
patient harm as well as additional costs and time spent
removing any that may have been left inside the patient
following an operative procedure.