CLINICAL INVESTIGATION A Checklist to Improve Patient Safety in Interventional Radiology

Purpose To develop a specific RADiological Patient Safety System (RADPASS) checklist for interventional radiology and to assess the effect of this checklist on health care processes of radiological interventions. Materials and Methods On the basis of available litera-ture and expert opinion, a prototype checklist was devel-oped. The checklist was adapted on the basis of observation of daily practice in a tertiary referral centre and evaluation by users. To assess the effect of RADPASS, in a series of radiological interventions, all deviations from optimal care were registered before and after implementation of the checklist. In addition, the checklist and its use were eval-uated by interviewing all users. Results The RADPASS checklist has two parts: A (Planning and Preparation) and B (Procedure). The latter part comprises checks just before starting a procedure (B1) and checks concerning the postprocedural care immedi-ately after completion of the procedure (B2). Two cohorts of, respectively, 94 and 101 radiological interventions were observed; the mean percentage of deviations of the opti-mal process per intervention decreased from 24 % before implementation to 5 % after implementation (p \ 0.001). Postponements and cancellations of inter-ventions decreased from 10 % before implementation to 0 % after implementation. Most users agreed that the checklist was user-friendly and increased patient safety awareness and efficiency. Conclusion The first validated patient safety checklist for interventional radiology was developed. The use of the RADPASS checklist reduced deviations from the optimal process by three quarters and was associated with less procedure postponements