title: Patient safety improvement interventions in children's surgery: A systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adult surgical patient safety literature is plentiful; however, there is a disproportionate paucity of published safety work in the children's surgical literature. We sought to systematically evaluate the nature and quality of patient safety evidence pertaining to pediatric surgical practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic search of MEDLINE and EMBASE databases and gray literature identified 1399 articles. Data pertaining to demographics, methodology, interventions, and outcomes were extracted. Study quality was assessed utilizing formal criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  20 studies were included. 14 (70%) comprised peer-reviewed articles. 18 (90%) were published in the last 4years. 13 (65%) described a novel intervention, and 7 (35%) described a modification of an existing intervention. Median patient sample size was 79 (29-1210). A large number (n=55) and variety (n=35) of measures were employed to evaluate the effect of interventions on patient safety. 15 (75%) studies utilized a checklist tool as a component of their intervention. 9 (45%) studies [comprising handoff tools (n=7); checklists (n=1); and multidimensional quality improvement initiatives (n=1)] reported a positive effect on patient safety. Quality assessment was undertaken on 14 studies. Quantitative studies had significantly higher quality scores than qualitative studies (61 [0-89] vs 44 [11-78], p=0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pediatric surgical patient safety evidence is in its early stages. Successful interventions that we identified were typically handoff tools. There now ought to be an onus on pediatric surgeons to develop and apply bespoke pediatric surgical safety interventions and generate an evidence base to parallel the adult literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  Level IV, Case series with no comparison group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. Electronic address: alexander.macdonald@mac.com.
authors.forename: Alexander L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.affiliation: Health Service and Population Research Department, King's College, London, UK.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sevdalis
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D010372:Pediatrics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000592:standards*; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Checklists; Handoff; Patient safety; Quality improvement; Teamwork