We surgeons want to believe that we’ve evolved along with the complexity of surgery, that we work more as teams now. But however embarrassing it may be for us to admit, researchers have observed that team members are commonly not all aware of a given patient’s risks, or the problems they need to be ready for, or why the surgeon is doing the operation. In one survey of three hundred staff members as they exited the operating room following a case, one out of eight reported that they were not even sure about where the incision would be until the operation started.
