{"id":45533,"date":"2019-04-17T14:33:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T18:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=45533"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:15:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T19:15:29","slug":"could-better-teamwork-and-communications-in-the-operating-room-make-surgery-safer-for-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/could-better-teamwork-and-communications-in-the-operating-room-make-surgery-safer-for-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Could better teamwork and communications in the operating room make surgery safer for patients?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Staff working in OR3 at the General Campus, where the OR Black Box was installed, are helping researchers study the effects of \u2018soft skills\u2019 such as leadership, communications and teamwork.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technical skills are clearly part of a successful surgery,\nbut what about \u2018soft skills\u2019 like leadership, communications and teamwork? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Sylvain Boet<\/a>\nand his research team at The Ottawa Hospital are studying whether improving these\nsoft skills among operating room staff can make surgery safer for patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be part of something that could be such a breakthrough in health care.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Boet and his team have already studied the best ways to\nteach soft skills during simulated scenarios. However, they did not have a way\nto measure whether these lessons were being applied in real-world operating\nrooms, until now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research team partnered with Dr. Teodor Grantcharov and\nhis team at St. Michael\u2019s Hospital in Toronto to install an Operating Room\nBlack Box\u00ae<\/a> in OR3 at The Ottawa Hospital\u2019s General\nCampus last summer. The platform captures audio, video, patient vital signs and\nother information from the OR during surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Sylvain Boet\u2019s research team brought the OR Black Box to The Ottawa Hospital.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was a medical student, we had lots of training in\ntechnical skills, like how to close an incision or insert a breathing tube. But\nthere was less focus on soft skills like leadership, teamwork and communication,\u201d\nsaid Dr. Boet, a scientist and anesthesiologist at The Ottawa Hospital, and\nassociate professor at the University of Ottawa. \u201cToday, medical staff receive\nmore training in these areas, but we don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s making a\ndifference in patient outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies suggest that many surgical complications can be\nlinked to problems with soft skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information captured by the OR Black Box will help\nresearchers identify trends in teamwork and communication, which they will then\nlink to how well patients did after surgery. The information will be used for\nresearch purposes only. Faces and voices will be altered to protect privacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>“By studying teamwork and communication, we can develop best practices that improve patient care, not only in Ottawa but around the world.”<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Understanding that surgery is already a stressful experience\nfor patients, Dr. Boet\u2019s team worked with patient advisors Maxime L\u00ea and Laurie\nProulx to find the best way to explain to people why their surgery might be recorded\nand how it might help improve care for future patients. Patients are told about\nthe black box before their surgery and can choose to opt out at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Patient
Patient advisor Maxime L\u00ea helped the research team determine the best way to explain the OR Black Box project to patients before their surgery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPersonally, I wouldn\u2019t have any problem with my surgery\nbeing recorded, because I know there are many safeguards in place to protect my\npersonal information,\u201d said L\u00ea. \u201cThe more I get involved in this project, the\nmore I am confident that it\u2019s a good idea. It\u2019s exciting to be part of\nsomething that could be such a breakthrough in health care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ottawa Hospital is the fourth hospital in Canada to install\nthe black box, and the first one outside the Toronto area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy studying teamwork and communication, we can develop best\npractices that improve patient care, not only in Ottawa but around the world,\u201d\nsaid Dr. Boet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Patient
The OR Black Box captures audio, video, patient vital signs and other information from the OR during surgery.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The researchers\nreceived support from The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization, the\nCanadian Institutes of Health Research, the Department of Anesthesiology and\nPain Medicine, the Department of\nSurgery and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Technical skills are clearly part of a successful surgery, but what about \u2018soft skills\u2019 like leadership, communications and teamwork? The OR Black Box\u00ae, installed last summer at The Ottawa Hospital General Campus, is helping researchers collect important data that could help improve care not only in Ottawa, but around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":45537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[67,413,92],"class_list":["post-45533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-innovation","tag-patient-safety","tag-research"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}