You can read important facts about standard operating procedures here:
1. About Unclear Responsibilities and Omitted Steps of a Procedure
A father intends to serve a meatloaf, potatoes, and vegetables for dinner. His wife is on a business trip, his son is worried about his maths test on the next day, and his daughter has just had to witness the accident of a friend during her riding lesson. Despite of this, both have to help now and are at least expected to lay the table.
The telephone rings, it´s his mother-in-law who wants to talk about arrangements for the next weekend. The children are having an argument instead of deciding who will place what on the table followed by a joint assessment of what is still missing. As the father is about to take the meatloaf out of the oven, he realises that the potatoes are sitting on the hot plate, but that he has forgotten to turn it on. When the family finally sits down at the table, the children have laid it almost completely, but the beverages are missing. In addition, the orange juice is empty, it had not been clarified, who had to buy replacements.
Most of us might be familiar with such scenes of our family lives at home. There, we may see these as normal daily occurrences and manage them with creativity and compassion with stressed family members.
What should it be like in an emergency room, though, when an emergency physician has announced that the rescue team will be there in ten minutes with an injured patient?
2. We Structure Our Workflows
Especially in a complex work environment, in which as few mistakes as possible should happen, SOPs have proven their worth. We will now elucidate step by step of what they consist and thereby stick to the example of an emergency room.
2.1. How to Define Important Contents of SOPs
As in our example here, we need to know, of course, to what work process an SOP pertains. Moreover, we have to determine the following items:
- where the work process takes place, for instance, in what rooms of an emergency ward (dedicated emergency room, or different rooms for different specialties, at the CT scanner)
- who is involved, f. ex., assisting personnel, physicians of various specialties (f. ex., internal medicine, surgery, anaesthesiology)
- what material and what equipment the ones on duty have to prepare (f. ex., the sonography device, the anaesthesia device, material to take blood samples)
- who will do what in what order (f. ex., first the emergency physician´s report, then the patient´s transfer from the stretcher to the examination bed, then sonography and blood collection)
- if applicable, decision-making tools for further examinations and treatments (f. ex., immediate operation, transfer to the ICU, consultation of further specialists)
2.2. Templates for Complete SOPs
Many institutions have defined templates with a fixed, easy-to-read layout, which they use for their SOPs. Thus, they can easily be recognised.
Especially for the important main part of an SOP, it is advantageous to use a clear layout with preferably standardised headlines.
The main part of an SOP comprises the items discussed in the example above:
- it is clearly defined to which procedure the SOP pertains
- who is involved
- where the work is carried out
- what equipment is needed
- the steps in the correct order, including who will do what
- if applicable, schemes for decision-making, also in the shape of flowcharts
- ideally, how the work will be evaluated, as well
For long SOPs, the authors may include a title page and a table of contents. If a department possesses many SOPs concerning a certain range of topics, it can summarise them in a binder, or a handbook.
In an SOP, it is stated in dedicated fields who has written and who has countersigned it. In addition, the version and the date are mentioned. These last two items are noteworthy with respect to the necessary updates.
So, a standard operating procedure, SOP, contains all information in a structured order, which is necessary to carry out a certain work process safely and completely.
In contrast to a simple process description, it is explicitly defined, who will do what under what circumstances where, using what equipment.
3. Area of Application and Benefits of SOPs
It is best at any workplace, to involve the entire team right from the start, and to make the SOPs a common asset. This enhances their acceptance.
3.1. Good Communication About the SOPs
It belongs to a skilful communication about the SOPs that the employees may contribute actively with their suggestions to the creation and the actualisation. When new employees are being trained, one should show them the SOPs and answer all their questions about them. When carrying out a certain work process, the ones involved should use the SOPs jointly. If they are already familiar with them, they can use them as a reference book which they consult in case of an uncertainty.
3.2. Areas of Use
SOPs are applied especially when complex work processes have to be carried out error-free. Examples include:
- many hospital departments
- in the emergency medical service, f. ex., measures which paramedics take in case of certain diseases, commonly with flowcharts
- at workplaces in science for experiments and further standardised procedures, f. ex., caring for a cell culture at a sterile work bench
- at many highrisk workplaces, for instance in aviation, maritime shipping, and the railroad industry for regular work processes
3.3. The Advantages of SOPs
If SOPs are applied continuously, they yield the following advantages:
- easy to look up for every employee, also for new ones, it is documented how a certain piece of work has to be done
- the piece of work will be done with constant quality
- even if different employees carry out the work, the flow and the result are as consistent as possible
- delays and stress caused by forgotten utensils, which a team then has to look for in the middle of a procedure, are prevented
- the risk of errors, which are caused by omissions and uncertainties, is minimised
- due to successful minimisation of errors safety is enhanced, which, for instance, is very important in patient care, in aviation, or occupational safety in laboratories
4. Perfect SOPs for Your Work
Where at your workplace have you already got SOPs? If you already work with them, who has written them, and what do these SOPs look like in detail? If you haven´t employed any SOPs yet, are there any work processes, in which they could be beneficial? If you wish to create SOPs yourself, the following steps might be helpful.
4.1. For Which Kinds of Work Do You Need SOPs?
First, you need to analyse, what recurring complex work processes you have at your workplace, for which you imagine a fixed workflow of good quality. Involve your employees in your planning, or suggest the creation of SOPs if you are an employee yourself.
4.2. A Template for Your SOPs
It is best to create a template for your SOPs with an easy-to-read layout first. Choose how you would like to design the following items:
- the title page
- the table of contents
- the fields in which you mention the authors, and the ones countersigning, the date, and the version
- the main part with specifications for the respective department, the ones involved, the equipment
- potential evaluation of your work
- templates for flowcharts
- period of time until the next update
- what you think is important concerning your SOP
4.3. Revision and Working Jointly With the SOPs
You should decide, who will revise your SOPs and how you want to present them to your team. You might want to contemplate together, how you would like to work with the SOPs and how to evaluate their effect.
You should also determine when you will update the SOPs. This would be advantageous, whenever something changes considerably in your work process due to innovations. In addition, you can fix certain timespans, after which you will assess the necessity of an adaption.
5. Interesting Facts About Risks in the Next Blog Article
There are risks, which we have to accept in order to reach a superior aim. How do we deal with them if we want to reach our goal as unharmed as possible? What risky types of behaviour should we preferably avoid as they can cause errors, or have fatal consequences? We will occupy ourselves with examples taken from the emergency medical service and the aviation industry.
Author: Eva-Maria Schottdorf
Date, February 27th, 2023
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