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This page is dedicated to topics of interest to our Chapter members. Please visit this page periodically for new information.
SCOAP
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to give you an update on a program that our chapter has developed over the last few years. The Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP) is a unique, clinician led, voluntary collaborative that links hospitals and surgeons with clinicians from across the state to increase the use of best practices in surgical care. SCOAP’s goal is to provide the kind of surveillance of procedures and response to negative outcomes that exists in the world of aviation. Now in its third year, SCOAP includes 33 hospitals across Washington State. To find out more about SCOAP you can access the website at http://www.surgicalcoap.org.
An important part of SCOAP is a surgical checklist initiative rolling out in all Washington State hospitals. The checklist is used at the start of surgery as part of an extended “time out” and after surgery as part of a debriefing. The SCOAP surgical checklist, which goes beyond the JCAHO time out concept, is made up of metrics that you and your colleagues decided are really relevant to patient care. The SCOAP surgical checklist guarantees that these vital steps to a successful procedure are carried out in every case and reinforces a culture of patient safety that can only come when surgeons take an active role. A coalition of healthcare stakeholders (American College of Surgeons – Washington State Chapter, Washington State Hospital Association, Washington Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Washington Patient Safety Coalition, Washington State Council of Perioperative Nurses, Washington State Health Care Authority, Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, and Washington State Society of Anesthesiologists, King County employees, the Puget Sound Health Alliance and many others all working through the Foundation for Health Care Quality) is supporting the initiative’s goal of having a SCOAP surgical checklist in every OR at every hospital in Washington State by the end of 2009.
The Washington State Chapter of the American College of Surgeons is proud to have created SCOAP and wholeheartedly supports the roll out of the SCOAP surgical checklist. We believe it will create a system that delivers safer surgery for all Washington state residents and encourage you to support it at your hospital. This mission of the SCOAP surgical checklist initiative aligns with the primary strategic goal of our organization to deliver the highest quality surgical care. Along with our patients surgeons in Washington will benefit from our support of the checklist initiative because it represents the surgical community leading the charge on quality.
We ask you to recognize the importance of the SCOAP checklist initiative and through support at your hospital help us achieve the goal of a SCOAP checklist in every operating room.
Sincerely,
Marc Horton, MD
President, Washington State Chapter of the American College of Surgeons
SCOAP is a program of the Foundation for Health Care Quality.
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