In this proof-of-concept study, we retrospectively analysed the impact of name tagging in the OR via questionnaire. We hypothesized that name tags could significantly improve communication in the OR and consequently employees’ satisfaction and patient safety. The project was introduced by the Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery but also conducted by the in-house Department of Trauma Surgery and Department of Anaesthesia of the University Hospital in Muenster, Germany. The roll-out took place across eight shared ORs. The central operating rooms of other departments were excluded due to the pilot character of the study.

Name tags according to personal preference, i.e. first name, last name, both or even nicknames have been put on the bonnet since March 13, 2023. Name tags were also colour-coded and labelled with the professional category ‘surgery’, ‘anaesthesia’, ‘OR nurse’, ‘anaesthetic nurse’, ‘service/cleaning’ or ‘guest’ (Fig. 1).

According to the department, name tags were coloured differently and could be filled out individually beneath the profession (white field). Professions were ‘surgery’, ‘anaesthesia’, ‘OR nurse’, ‘anaesthetic nurse’, ‘service/cleaning’ and ‘guest’ (from upper left to bottom right) (a). In (b) name tags used during surgery are circled. Written informed consent obtained by individuals in the picture is available

On May 26, 2023, a total of 440 anaesthesiologists, general, visceral and trauma surgeons, nurses, cleaning and service staff were invited via email to answer a German-language evaluation questionnaire of nine questions (Supplementary Table S1). Survey period ended on August 7, 2023. Survey was created for this study and evaluated independently by clinical experts to ensure content relevance and validity. Questions were reviewed by clinicians to confirm that questions address all aspects of the intervention’s impact. Reliability was not tested. Main outcome measures were defined retrospectively as overall rating, staff compliance and positive as well as negative aspects. Additional findings could be defined as occupational differences between subgroups.

The questionnaires were handed out with no financial or other non-financial incentives and created by the publicly available online survey tool survio.com (Survio s.r.o., Brno, Czech Republic). The aim of the survey was described in detail in the email and participants’ anonymity and confidentiality were ensured. Duration of the survey was estimated to be five minutes. No time limit to answer the questions was set. Additionally, people were also motivated to forward the email to people not being included in the mailing list. Questions about sex, age, profession, frequency of use, overall rating as well as positive and negative aspects of the project were included. The possibility of free text was given. The free text responses were clustered by two clinical experts, and each cluster was treated as a separate binary variable (mentioned or not mentioned) in the subsequent analysis. Multiple answers were possible.

The study was created with the help of the STROBE cross sectional reporting guidelines [18].

All variables are presented as frequencies and percentages. Accordingly, differences between occupations were tested using Fisher's exact test. Tests were conducted as follows: ‘anaesthetists’ and ‘anaesthetic nurses’ vs. ‘surgeons’ and ’OR nurses’; ‘anaesthetists’ vs. ‘surgeons’; ‘anaesthetic nurses’ vs. ‘OR nurses’ and ‘others’ vs. all other professional groups. All tests were performed with a local significance level of alpha = 0.05. Statistical tests were performed using the program R version 4.3.0 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria). Due to the exploratory nature of the study no multiple testing correction was applied. All graphs were created using GraphPad Prism version 10.2.3 for Windows, GraphPad Software, Boston, Massachusetts USA, www.graphpad.com.