The Surgical Care Safety Leads team and action partners have continued to make steady progress since our face to face meeting in October.

Highlights includes completion of a report which synthesizes all the current literature related to teamwork and communication in the surgical setting. Additionally, in response to actions targeted at the identification of a national set of surgical indicators, through a collaboration led by CIHI, a working group reviewed existing surgical indicators and identified a set of 8 indicators that would have broad applicability in Canada. These indicators are currently being reviewed by the provincial and territorial health ministries to determine alignment of these indicators with those being collected currently.

Through a partnership with Patients for Patient Safety Canada, the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society and the OR Nurses Association of Canada, several surgery related patient engagement tools were complied, reviewed and curated and have been posted for reference on the Patient Engagement Hub of the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement's website.

Efforts have focused on brining to conclusion as many of the surgical care safety actions as is possible; the majority of when will be successfully completed by March 31, 2018. It has been determined that due to scope and complexity the action relating to the dissemination and implementation of best practices (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery – ERAS) will be integrated into CPSI's new strategic planning process. Six working groups have been developed to adapt and adopt existing evidence-based guidelines which will support an implementation strategy being planned for 2019-2020.