Patients and families from the region can be assured that McLeod Loris Seacoast is a destination for safe surgery, demonstrated by a recent statewide recognition. McLeod Loris and McLeod Seacoast have received Safe Surgery 2015 Hospital Designation from the South Carolina Hospital Association. Both facilities were recognized at the 9th Annual Transforming Health Symposium on April 6, 2016 in Columbia, SC.

The Safe Surgery Hospital Designation is awarded to health facilities that utilize best practicing measures of successfully implementing the Surgical Safety Checklist.

The World Health Organization (The WHO) recognized a need for a checklist to aid in improving the safety and quality of care and initiated the process in 2007. They developed a checklist to be used as a template by various medical organizations to reach a Safe Surgical Checklist for each patient having surgery. This checklist involves a briefing prior to surgery with the patient receiving anesthesia, a time out (prior to the start of the surgery) and a debriefing period before the patient leaves the operating room.

The Safe Surgery Checklist was introduced in the surgical areas of McLeod Loris and McLeod Seacoast in October 2012. Since the implementation of the checklist, the surgical staff has championed the practice.

"We have done an admirable job of implementing the Safe Surgery program with our surgical checklist system here at McLeod Loris and McLeod Seacoast,” said Dr. Frederick J. Hamilton of River Hills Orthopaedics. “It is faithfully performed prior to every surgery with each procedure."

“Everyday at McLeod Loris Seacoast our Surgical teams personify the McLeod values to our patients,” said Cindy Hyatt, Vice President of Patient Services. “With the Safe Surgery Hospital Designation, this verifies the high level of detail and dedication McLeod Health offers this community. The constant desire to better serve our patients is what makes McLeod Health the best choice of medical care.”

McLeod Loris and McLeod Seacoast place patient safety as the first priority of patient care. McLeod Health holds itself accountable for every process, and promise offered to each patient. With the Safety Surgical Checklist, this is just one of the methods in place to offer patients the highest level of service excellence.