A 'game' before entering the operating room

Image Video Game H. Hospital Galdakao-Usansolo

"What is your name? Where we will Give you the procedure?" If you ask these questions on the operating table, do not panic. Not that the surgeon not clear their work. Simply it is a measure to ensure their safety and effectiveness of the whole process .

A few years ago, a study led by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that following a simple surgical checklist - are you ready anesthesia? What instruments? - managed to significantly reduce deaths and complications associated with an intervention.

Since then, many hospitals have introduced this 'checklist' in the operating room, but its implementation is not always simple. Many saw the checks that require the list are obvious to any health , so are reluctant to complete a systematic program.

To break down this resistance, Galdakao-Usansolo Hospital (Bizkaia) has devised an ingenious measure: develop a game that helps to both raise awareness about the importance of the list and fill it correctly on three key points (before, during, and after each operation).

"At first it's sometimes hard because, although brief, questions may seempatently obvious or a waste of time , "says Inés Gallego, Head of Quality and Innovation Unit of the Basque Center, where he introduced the 'surgical checklist' and in 2010.

In that sense, he adds, using electronic platforms, easy to use and entertaining can be very useful .

The game, which is still in development, simulates four case studies in which the player has to act as coordinator of the checklist. "We are trying to make it very real, using language such as that used daily in operating rooms, even adding comment reluctant to list," says Gallego.

Depending on what the user, the game moves on one line or another, you will end up with the death of the patient, and at the end of the game, resulting in a final report with the mistakes.

"There is a lot of humor and fun, so training is not heavy , "he adds Gallego.

Some of the key points that includes the game are how to ensure the safety of anesthesia, checking whether there has been appropriate prophylaxis against infection or verification that has not left any gauze in the patient's body.