One Simple Tweak to Improve Patient Safety

If you've ever been to a hospital, you know how frustrating it is when professionals walk in the room, do something to you, and then walk out without introducing themselves. Then someone else comes in and asks, "Has the doctor been here yet?" and you really can't say. Now imagine how confusing it is in an operating room with a team of specialists and medical technicians that are all dressed alike, with masks on. That started to change when Australian anesthetist Dr. Rob Hackett put on a surgical cap with his name and position on it. He got some pushback on the idea at first, but it started to spread. Hackett promotes the idea through his PatientSafe Network.   

Now, medical professionals are showing their support and involvement in the movement by tweeting selfies with their own caps, just like Dr. Hackett’s. Under the hashtag #TheatreCapChallenge, they argue that having their names on them can save vital seconds in life and death situations. The move, they say, can reduce delays and misidentification that occur when clinicians can’t recognize or can’t remember the names of their colleagues in the operating theatre.

“I went to a cardiac arrest in a theatre where there were about 20 people in the room,” Dr. Rob Hackett said. “I struggled to even ask to be passed some gloves because the person I was pointing to thought I was pointing to the person behind them.”

“It’s so much easier to coordinate when you know everyone’s names. It’s great for camaraderie and it’s great for patients as well.”

I'll say. If medical folks did this where I live, I could skip past "Who are you?" and "Are you a doctor?" and go straight to the important stuff: "If you aren't in my network, I can't pay you." Read more about the #TheatreCapChallenge and the PatientSafe program at Bored Panda.


When they are prepping you for major surgery, like open heart, you are so full of "happy juice" you do not care a whit. At least someone told me that.
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