The 'go between' study: a simulation study comparing the 'Traffic Lights' and 'SBAR' tools as a means of communication between anaesthetic staff
Communicating non urgent, urgent and frank emergency requests for assistance between anaesthetists in theatre often requires a 'go between' frequently a non anaesthetic healthcare professional to transmit information. We compared the currently recommended situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) tool with a newly devised Traffic Lights tool 'red alert' 'amber assist' and 'green query' in a simulation study to assess communication quality using 12 validated clinical scenarios of varying urgency. Compared to SBAR, Traffic Lights was used more consistently 'very clear' or 'clear' Traffic Lights 94% vs SBAR 69% transferred information better (two or three pieces of information correctly transferred Traffic Lights 85% SBAR 44% and was judged to lead to greater clarity (all p 0.0001) Message delivery time was significantly reduced (Traffic Lights 20.5 s vs SBAR 45.5 s, median (95% CI) difference 25 (19 30) s, p 0.001) Users rated the Traffic Lights system as significantly more useful than SBAR, with 96% of participants preferring the Traffic Lights tool. Results were independent of go between training. We recommend the adoption of this communication tool as standard practice for anaesthetic teams.
Anaesthesia