Correct-site surgery and the Universal Protocol

What it is

Correct-site surgery is Goal 4 of the International Patient Safety Goals of the JCI: ensure correct-site, correct-procedure, correct patient surgery. Written out on its own slide it reads: ensure correct-site, correct-procedure, correct patient surgery, and correct patient identification preoperatively. The tool named for it is the WHO surgical safety checklist.

The six goals it belongs to

The goals, which started Jan 2007, are:

• Goal 1: Identify Patients Correctly
• Goal 2: Improve Effective Communication
• Goal 3: Improve the Safety of High-Alert Medications
• Goal 4: Ensure Correct-Site, Correct-Procedure, Correct Patient Surgery
• Goal 5: Reduce the Risk of Health Care-Associated Infections
• Goal 6: Reduce the Risk of Patient Harm Resulting from Falls