Principles of Perioperative Safety and Quality on the Global Stage

The goal of any surgical service should go beyond the provision of lifesaving and disability-preventive surgical interventions to ensure safety and high-quality perioperative care for all types of surgery. Ensuring the patient safety throughout the entire journey from admission until discharge from the hospital requires a multi-sectorial approach with the involvement of health providers, policy makers, and global stakeholders toward strengthening the surgical care system, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Safe and high-quality perioperative care requires investments in trained surgical health providers at all levels of care, robust infrastructure, well-maintained equipment, access to essential medicines and supplies, infection control, data records, and implementation of safety protocols. This chapter focuses on practical approaches for health providers and policy makers that are applicable globally for improving the quality and safety of perioperative care for better health outcomes, even in austere environments. Such approaches will enable countries to meet the sustainable development goals specifically relevant for ensuring high-quality surgical services, which are essential toward achieving universal health coverage.