Conditions and Safety
All operating rooms have a unique set of conditions based on the type of hospital and where it is located. Each OR has:
- a local culture
- a specific personality mixes
- specific types of surgery and case intensity
- different fiscal limitations
- varied risk management/safety factors
Personnel Safety
The operating room environment holds risks for both employees and patients. Potential sources of injury for employees include the following hazards:
Hospitals have policies and procedures to mitigate risk. For instance, specimens collected in the OR have a chain-of-custody protocol for legal and safety reasons. This is a written record of who and how the specimen was transferred from the patient’s point of care to the laboratory analyst, and what storage/disposal methods were used.
The Journey of Specimens
The order from the specimen leaving the operating room to fully prepared slides for the pathologist.
- Specimen leaves the operating room in container
- Specimen at Pathology Laboratory is registered, and given a unique number and barcode Label
- A pathologist handles the specimen at the grossing station
- Matching the specimen data and request form
- Description given of specimen
- Documentation of Pathologic changes
- Sampling of Specimen
- Samples placed in Cassettes
- Processing of samples in machine
- Embedding samples in paraffin wax blocks
- Cutting using Microtome
- Staining
- Slides are ready for the pathologist
Documented Patient Safety Processes
- Ensure the surgeon has marked the surgical site
- Patient admission documentation
- Surgical checklist/Surgical pause (interprofessional team monitors safety for each patient)
- Specimen collection protocols
- Medication administration protocols
- Counting protocols (ensure there are no retained items)
- Intraoperative documentation
- Equipment checks ( e.g., laser protocols)
- Patient handovers (standardized format such as SBAR (situation, background, assessment, and recommendations)