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Stephanie Ziesing, R.N.

Providence Medical Center, SC

Stephanie: Well, we had some great success stories, and during our meetings we would ask if anyone had some success stories with using the checklist. And it seemed like the first successes were in the ophthalmology rooms, where we had saved opening up the wrong lenses, and by using the checklist we were helped with turnover time, and the ophthalmologists were really excited about that. So, they were on board, and they let us know that their patients come back to their offices, and the patients liked hearing the staff use a checklist. And then the surgeons were explaining to the patients, what were they doing in the OR right before you started, and the surgeon would explain. His answer to the patient would be, “You know, it’s the new Safe Surgical checklist, we do it for every patient, it helps with efficiency, and it helps with safety.” So, they came on board very fast. But once we started hearing success stories and other physicians starting to use the checklist and ask about it, we decided to put up a bulletin board in the break room, which happened to be right outside the doctors’ lounge as well. And on that bulletin board, we were able to capture pictures of teams using the checklist. If the team used the checklist in a procedure, we asked if they would stand by their checklist and let us take a picture. So, we took pictures of all the teams that were utilizing the checklist, and we posted them on a bulletin board with culture of safety, and we had some questions and answers on the bulletin board about the checklist. And basically, it was a celebration of our success on implementing the checklist. And one day, one of the physicians who was adamant about not using the checklist—he just thought it was a hindrance, he didn’t need it, he was safe already, and he just did not want to use it—saw the bulletin board and was just looking at all the pictures and thought it was very nice, and he just wanted to know more about it. And we told him, you know, “This is a bulletin board about safe surgery,” and he was asking why his picture wasn’t on the bulletin board with all the other surgeons and the teams, and we had to explain at that point that these pictures were taken of teams that actually used the checklist during a procedure. And right there, a light bulb kind of went off and he decided, well, I want to use the checklist. So, you know, we took that as a starting point with him to try and get him on board the right way. So, we took the checklist, we went over it with him, asked him if he had any changes. We kind of went back to beginning one with him, and he was more open at this point now to use the checklist. We’re not quite sure whether it was because his picture wasn’t on the bulletin board, or if he, through all these pictures and through all the stories from the other surgeons, whether he had been sold on the fact that it really is a useful tool, it’s a tool for safety, and it’s a communication tool that now he was willing to use. So, yes, he did use the checklist, and his picture did get put on the bulletin board.