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Scope and Mission

Patient Safety in Surgery is an open access PubMed-indexed journal that publishes peer-reviewed articles in the field of surgical patient safety, and beyond.

The journal’s mission is to provide an international forum for healthcare professionals to report, discuss, debate, and critically review all aspects of care delivery that impose a risk on patient safety, with the ultimate goal of eliminating preventable adverse events and improving patient outcomes on a larger scale.

Special Issue: The Global Impact of Antibiotic Resistance on Emergency Surgery and Patient Safety

Patient Safety in Surgery is taking part in a special issue in collaboration with World Journal of Emergency Surgery to address the global burden of antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance on surgery and patient safety before, during, and after surgery, with a particular interest in the emergency surgery setting.

Guest Editor: Massimo Sartelli, MD, Global Alliance for Infections in Surgery & Macerata Hospital, Italy.

Submission Status: Open until 31 October 2024.

Collection: Machine learning approach for improvement of patient safety in surgery

Guest Editors:
Kathryn Holland: Mission Health, United States
Roy Nanz: Mission Health, United States
Submission Status: Closed 

Featured Article: Clinicians’ perceptions of “enhanced recovery after surgery” (ERAS) protocols to improve patient safety in surgery: a national survey from Australia

Image of 4 surgeons in an operating room grouped round an unseen patient carrying out surgery“Enhanced Recovery After Surgery” (ERAS) represents a globally established best-practice protocol aimed at reducing the intraoperative stress response in patients undergoing surgical procedures and thereby improving patient safety, patient experience, and patient outcomes. The standardized multimodal ERAS protocol streamlines the perioperative management of surgical patients with a focus on reducing preoperative patient fasting, optimizing carbohydrate loading, and preventing opioid-associated adverse effects by multimodal pain management strategies via opioid-sparing or opioid-free anesthesia modalities. The current featured article describes a national survey from Australia designed to assess the knowledge and attitude among surgeons, anesthesiologists, and perioperative nurses towards the proven benefits of the ERAS protocol. In spite of general awareness and conceptual support, the authors reported a significant gap in knowledge about the ERAS protocol among the 178 perioperative healthcare professionals who participated in the study. These insights provide an imperative to further promote and disseminate the proven benefits of the evidence-based ERAS protocol with the intent of improving surgical patient safety and postoperative patient outcomes on a global scale.

About the Editor

"This is an exciting time to be involved in promoting a global culture of patient safety among all healthcare providers, particularly for the next generation of physicians and surgeons. Current patient safety protocols continue to fall short of protecting our patients from suffering unintended harm. Our journal provides a forum for reporting, discussing, and designing new patient safety standards for the future."

– Philip F. Stahel, Editor-in-Chief

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Patient Safety in Surgery is published continuously online-only and so we encourage you to sign up to receive free email alerts to keep up to date with all of the latest articles by registering here.

Annual Journal Metrics

  • Citation Impact 2023
    Journal Impact Factor: 2.6
    5-year Journal Impact Factor: 2.7
    Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 1.587
    SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.602

    Speed 2023
    Submission to first editorial decision (median days): 4
    Submission to acceptance (median days): 41

    Usage 2023
    Downloads: 620,998
    Altmetric mentions: 168