Development and validation of a checklist for cardiopulmonary bypass

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Introduction Risk prevention protocols related to patient care have been developed to reduce the incidence of adverse events in health care services. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) can trigger several complications, including physiological problems, electrical, mechanical and human failures or defective components. In order to promote patient safety and the identification of failures before they can cause damages, it is necessary the use of a checklist for all surgeries. Objective To prepare and validate a checklist for cardiopulmonary bypass. Methodology A consensus validation methodology is applied in this study, in which the Delphi technique was structured for the instrument's development. Five perfusion experts, with at least five years of experience, had an active participation in this research. First, a questionnaire was structured, based on the comprehensive review of the relevant literature. Then, two rounds of assessments were conducted, allowing collection of experts' opinions. Results In a first moment, a 42-item list was prepared and sent to the 5 experts for analysis. Based on participant's responses, certain elements were accepted, excluded, and suggested. After that, a second 37-item list was assessed by the experts, resulting in all 37 items that had an average assessment ≥ 4 and standard deviation ≤ 1.0 of acceptance. Based on these results, a 41-element checklist was developed, and these elements were considered crucial and relevant for the concerned analysis. Conclusion The use of specific checklists for cardiopulmonary bypass comes into view as a highly proficient strategy, capable of promoting substantial improvements in the procedure safety and quality. The implementation and approval of this checklist should be considered.