Data collected from eight hospitals in eight cities around the world indicate that a 19-item surgical safety checklist can have a significant impact on reducing complications and deaths associated with surgery.
The study, reported in a special online article from The New England Journal of Medicine, prospectively collected data on clinical processes and outcomes from 3,733 patients age 16 or older who underwent noncardiac surgery. After the checklist was introduced, data was subsequently collected on 3,955 patients. Introduction of the checklist resulted in a decline for rate of death from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent and a decline in inpatient complications from 11 percent to 7 percent.
The checklist was based on guidelines published by the World Health Organization in 2008 identifying multiple recommended practices to ensure the safety of surgical patients worldwide.
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