WHO surgical safety checklist cuts post-surgical deaths by 22%, US study finds

Hospitals that completed a quality improvement programme designed to implement the World Health Organization’s surgical safety checklist saw a 22% lower 30 day post-surgery mortality than hospitals that did not complete the programme, a US study has found.1

The WHO checklist requires surgical teams to take such steps as confirming the patient’s identity, scheduled procedure, and surgical site at the outset; reviewing the procedure’s risks before incision; and completing instrument and sponge counts and discussing postoperative care before the patient leaves the operating room.23

In several research trials the checklist was …