Testing, Efficacy, and Team Perception
The use of communication tools warrants periodic testing of their usefulness in practice. A tool’s effectiveness often depends on how the surgical team perceives the efficacy of the tool and on periodic testing of its effectiveness.30 In a study designed to reduce adverse outcomes in surgery through the use of a briefing checklist, researchers used a questionnaire to evaluate whether the use of the checklist correlated with study participants’ perceived risk of reduction in wrong-site surgery occurrences.31 Analysis of the responses showed that study participants felt a significant level of certainty in the correct site location as a result of the use of an OR briefing tool (P = .001). These findings suggest that although a proliferation of tools have been developed, team members’ commitment to the sustainability of the process has a direct effect on whether use of interventions will positively affect processes related to patient safety and clinical outcomes. Team members must perceive the intervention as valuable for it to be useful in practice.31 Team members will be more willing to continue using a tool if they see a direct correlation between it and positive patient outcomes while also recognizing that tangible results from any intervention require consistency and may take time to implement before seeing positive results.