Final answer:
The NPSGs for ambulatory health care include checklist practices to prevent surgery mistakes, such as team introductions, confirmation of patient details, reviews of anticipated critical events, administration of prophylactic antibiotics, and ensuring all necessary information and equipment are ready and verified.
Step-by-step explanation:
The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) for ambulatory health care that address preventing mistakes in surgery emphasize the use of practical, effective approaches—namely, a checklist. Inspired by aviation protocols, these checklists ensure that critical surgical safety procedures are reliably carried out every time. Among the practices included are:
- Team introductions by name and role to foster communication.
- Confirmation of patient identity, surgical site, and procedure to prevent identity and site errors.
- Anticipated event reviews, including the surgeon discussing critical steps, estimated duration, and potential blood loss; the anesthesia staff addressing patient-specific concerns; and nursing staff verifying sterilization and equipment.
- Administration of prophylactic antibiotics within a specified timeframe or confirmation that they are not needed.
- Assuring all critical imaging is displayed in the operating room to inform the surgical team.
- Nursing staff vocalizing checklist completion such as procedure name, counts of needles, sponges, and instruments, specimen labeling, and equipment issues.
Implementing these practices has led to a significant decrease in postsurgical complications and deaths, illustrating their importance in surgical safety.