OPERATING ROOMS: Emergency manuals and crisis checklists are becoming more widely used

Emergency manuals to be used in crisis situations in the operating room have become more widely used in U.S. hospitals in the past 3 to 4 years.  These manuals typically include evidence-based crisis checklists which are developed or adapted by a multi-disciplinary team.  The concept of cognitive aids to be used to guide response to stressful situations comes from aviation and other industries that have the potential for high hazards.

Here are some free resources (others are mentioned in the article).

• Emergency Manuals Implementation Collaborative http://www.emergencymanuals.org/
• Stanford School of Medicine. Emergency Manual http://emergencymanual.stanford.edu/
• Project Check http://www.projectcheck.org/crisis.html
• Society of Pediatric Anesthesia. PediCrisis. http://www.pedsanesthesia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Critical_Event_Checklists.pdf

Source: Saver, C. (2015, July). Checklists help staff keep cool in the heat of an OR crisis. OR Manager, 31(7). Retrieved from http://www.ormanager.com/checklists-help-staff-keep-cool-heat-crisis/   Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2003, rc@aha.org