New Delhi, December 23, 2016: An operating theatre, also known as an Operating Room (OR) or operating suite, is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in a sterile environment. A patient’s safety in the operation room is of utmost importance. There are rare cases of grave mistakes such as operating on a wrong patient, wrong operation and wrong side/site. Among these rare cases- operation on a wrong body part or inappropriate medication, tops the chart when it comes to healthcare issues.

Operation Room Safety has been a belief and practice with the given set of guidelines to make it a successful act. The objective is to spot the risks present in the operating rooms and be prepared with a list of actions to minimize these potential hazards. Patient security in the operating suite starts before the patient enters the operation theatre. The biggest threat to a patient’s safety in the Operation Room is communication breakdown, information loss, increased work load and competing tasks.

The modern innovation in operating rooms has helped in making a better and safe environment for the operation room staff and doctors as well. The current practices in Modern Operation Rooms are Preoperative verification process and Site marking. These rooms are extensive, simple to clean, sufficiently bright, with overhead surgical light, austere controlled room temperature and humidity. The air supplied into the operating room is Hepa filtered air, channeled through the laminar airflow to maintain the operating theater's sterility. These modern operating rooms are supplied with dedicated pendants for the Anesthetist and Surgeon. Pendants are designed to have services like electrical, Gases and IT/ data points and also trays for equipments, thus reducing the cluttering of equipment trolleys around the operating table.

Operating rooms today are designed with built in storage cabinets in the OR, this helps to reduce staff movement in and out of the operation theatre and thus helps in maintaining positive pressure at all times during the surgery. Positive pressure is monitored with a Magnehelic pressure Gauge which shows the differential pressure of the operation room compared with the corridor. All modern operation theaters should follow the Norms and Guide lines of NABH, HTM2025 and Ashrae.

Operation rooms are supposed to maintain a hygienic ambience. In the present day, there are a lot of cases that are prone to infections due to unhygienic Operation room environment. Surgical site infection (SSI) represents greater than 15% of all clinically gained contaminations and Nosocomial diseases in surgical patients.

The rate of surgical contaminations is firmly impacted by operating theatre quality, as well. A protected and salubrious working theatre is a situation in which all wellsprings of contamination and any miniaturized scale ecological changes are kept entirely under control.

This can be accomplished just through watchful arrangements of upkeep and occasional checks. Many universal exploratory social orders have created rules related to the natural components of working theatres (positive weight, trades of air changes every hour, ventilating frameworks with HEPA filters and many more), and issuing proposals on medicinal services related to disease, including SSI, concerning reconnaissance techniques, intercession to effectively avert SSI and ways to deal with observing the usage of such methodologies. In this way, the anticipation of SSI requires a multidisciplinary approach and the dedication of all concerned, including that of the individuals who are in charge of the outline, design and working of operating theatres.

A patient’s safety can be improved by implementing training on a model, hands on specialization opportunity and careful selection of nurses and the members who are involved with the Operation procedure. The selection procedure must not be limited to an interview. A practical examination, to assess the new candidates should be made mandatory. Such tests should be taken while letting them perform on simulation models. That would be the true measure of estimating a candidate’s credibility. We strongly believe operation room Safety has the scope to improve if due importance is given to the intricate details such as-

Proper housekeeping ( disinfecting of OT after surgery)

Regular air sampling

Maintaining positive pressure in the OR/ OT

Following proper OT protocol applicable to Surgeons, other visiting OT staff.

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