Impact of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist on patient safety.

Arvid S. Haugen; Nick Sevdalis; Eirik Søfteland

Review

Impact of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist on patient safety.

June 12, 2019

Haugen AS, Sevdalis N, Søfteland E. Anesthesiology. 2019;131(2):420-425.

View more articles from the same authors.

Checklists have been widely embedded into care processes, despite questions regarding their effectiveness in improving safety. This review summarizes the evidence on use of the WHO surgical checklist and highlights the need for persistence, long-term commitment, and implementation strategy to prevent complications.

PubMed citation

Available at

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

How does the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist fit with existing perioperative risk management strategies? An ethnographic study across surgical specialties.

March 18, 2020

Effect of the World Health Organization checklist on patient outcomes: a stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial.

June 10, 2015

Impact of the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist on safety culture in the operating theatre: a controlled intervention study.

July 10, 2013

Clinical efficacy of combined surgical patient safety system and the World Health Organization's checklists in surgery: a nonrandomized clinical trial.

June 3, 2020

Perceptions of time spent on safety tasks in surgical operations: a focus group study.

February 11, 2015

Implementation of checklists in health care; learning from high-reliability organisations.

December 7, 2011

The association between patient safety culture and adverse events - a scoping review.

May 17, 2023

Patient safety improvement interventions in children's surgery: a systematic review.

November 16, 2016

Misdiagnosis: analysis based on case record review with proposals aimed to improve diagnostic processes.

September 7, 2011

Beyond clinical engagement: a pragmatic model for quality improvement interventions, aligning clinical and managerial priorities.

January 20, 2016

Patient involvement in patient safety: the health-care professional's perspective.

November 7, 2012

Distracting communications in the operating theatre.

June 6, 2007

Relationships of multitasking, physicians' strain, and performance: an observational study in ward physicians.

March 6, 2013

Improving the quality and safety of care on the medical ward: a review and synthesis of the evidence base.

January 14, 2015

Rethinking medical ward quality.

November 9, 2016

An examination of opportunities for the active patient in improving patient safety.

February 22, 2012

Patient involvement in patient safety: what factors influence patient participation and engagement?

August 22, 2007

Teamwork and team performance in multidisciplinary cancer teams: development and evaluation of an observational assessment tool.

June 29, 2011

Junior doctors' reflections on patient safety.

March 21, 2012

Aviation and healthcare: a comparative review with implications for patient safety.

February 3, 2016

Patients' attitudes towards patient involvement in safety interventions: results of two exploratory studies.

February 1, 2012

Hospital patients' reports of medical errors and undesirable events in their health care.

June 27, 2012

Case-based learning for patient safety: the Lessons Learnt program for UK junior doctors.

March 29, 2012

Translating staff experience into organisational improvement: the HEADS-UP stepped wedge, cluster controlled, non-randomised trial.

November 1, 2017

Crisis management on surgical wards: a simulation-based approach to enhancing technical, teamwork, and patient interaction skills.

March 18, 2015

Closing the safety loop: evaluation of the National Patient Safety Agency's guidance regarding wristband identification of hospital inpatients.

April 29, 2009

Conceptual and practical challenges associated with understanding patient safety within community-based mental health services.

December 7, 2022

Diagnostic error in a national incident reporting system in the UK.

September 8, 2010

The impact of stress on surgical performance: a systematic review of the literature.

February 3, 2010

Impact of intraoperative distractions on patient safety: a prospective descriptive study using validated instruments.

May 21, 2014

Diagnostic error in children presenting with acute medical illness to a community hospital.

July 30, 2014

Managing intraoperative stress: what do surgeons want from a crisis training program?

April 8, 2009

Teamwork in the operating theatre: cohesion or confusion?

March 29, 2006

Patients' and health care professionals' attitudes towards the PINK patient safety video.

June 29, 2011

The impact of nontechnical skills on technical performance in surgery: a systematic review.

January 30, 2005

Building capacity and capability for patient safety education: a train-the-trainers programme for senior doctors.

May 29, 2013

Observational teamwork assessment for surgery: feasibility of clinical and nonclinical assessor calibration with short-term training.

May 30, 2012

Do safety checklists improve teamwork and communication in the operating room? A systematic review.

January 29, 2014

Crisis preparedness: a systems-based framework for avoiding harm in surgery.

November 30, 2022

Surgical leadership in a culture of safety: an inter-professional study of metrics and tools for improving clinical practice.

November 29, 2023

Reliability of a revised NOTECHS scale for use in surgical teams.

July 16, 2008

Information needs in operating room teams: what is right, what is wrong, and what is needed?

January 12, 2011

The outcomes of recent patient safety education interventions for trainee physicians and medical students: a systematic review.

July 15, 2015

Safety skills training for surgeons: a half-day intervention improves knowledge, attitudes and awareness of patient safety.

May 9, 2012

Reviewing methodologically disparate data: a practical guide for the patient safety research field.

September 8, 2010

Information transfer and communication in surgery: a systematic review.

August 11, 2010

International recommendations for national patient safety incident reporting systems: an expert Delphi consensus-building process.

February 1, 2017

Building a safer foundation: the Lessons Learnt patient safety training programme.

November 6, 2013

Development of a theoretical framework of factors affecting patient safety incident reporting: a theoretical review of the literature.

February 14, 2018

Smartphones let surgeons know WhatsApp: an analysis of communication in emergency surgical teams.

December 17, 2014

The effects of safety checklists in medicine: a systematic review.

December 4, 2013

Factors compromising safety in surgery: stressful events in the operating room.

February 10, 2010

Failures in communication and information transfer across the surgical care pathway: interview study.

July 25, 2012

Translating concerns into action: a detailed qualitative evaluation of an interdisciplinary intervention on medical wards.

April 26, 2017

Qualities and attributes of a safe practitioner: identification of safety skills in healthcare.

January 26, 2011

Effects of interdisciplinary team care interventions on general medical wards: a systematic review.

June 24, 2015

Development of the Huddle Observation Tool for structured case management discussions to improve situation awareness on inpatient clinical wards.

May 30, 2018

A prospective risk assessment of informal carers' medication administration errors within the domiciliary setting.

August 2, 2017

A systematic quantitative assessment of risks associated with poor communication in surgical care.

June 30, 2010

Patient safety skills in primary care: a national survey of GP educators.

February 4, 2015

A smartphone app designed to empower patients to contribute toward safer surgical care: community-based evaluation using a participatory approach.

March 18, 2020

The WHO surgical safety checklist: survey of patients' views.

August 6, 2014

Multidisciplinary crisis simulations: the way forward for training surgical teams.

July 18, 2007

SBAR M&M: a feasible, reliable, and valid tool to assess the quality of, surgical morbidity and mortality conference presentations.

March 14, 2012

Improving the quality of the surgical morbidity and mortality conference: a prospective intervention study.

May 22, 2013

Measuring variation in use of the WHO surgical safety checklist in the operating room: a multicenter prospective cross-sectional study.

December 17, 2014

A qualitative evaluation of the barriers and facilitators toward implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist across hospitals in England: lessons from the "Surgical Checklist Implementation Project."

August 20, 2014

Understanding the role of non-technical skills in patient safety.

April 25, 2012

Surgical checklist implementation project: the impact of variable WHO checklist compliance on risk-adjusted clinical outcomes after national implementation: a longitudinal study.

April 1, 2015

Patient involvement in patient safety: how willing are patients to participate?

March 2, 2011

Improving patient safety in the operating theatre and perioperative care: obstacles, interventions, and priorities for accelerating progress.

February 20, 2013

Impact of automated dispensing cabinets on medication selection and preparation error rates in an emergency department: a prospective and direct observational before-and-after study.

October 7, 2015

Hospital autopsy: endangered or extinct?

July 8, 2015

The value of learning from near misses to improve patient safety: a scoping review.

January 25, 2023

Development and evaluation of a checklist to support decision making in cancer multidisciplinary team meetings: MDT-QuIC.

January 25, 2012

The causes of their death appear (unto our shame perpetual): why root cause analysis is not the best model for error investigation in mental health services.

May 6, 2015

Patient perceptions and experiences with medication-related activities in the emergency department: a qualitative study.

July 19, 2023

The association of workflow interruptions and hospital doctors' workload: a prospective observational study.

May 2, 2012

A review of significant events analysed in general practice: implications for the quality and safety of patient care.

October 14, 2009

Paediatric dosing errors before and after electronic prescribing.

August 18, 2010

Methodological variations and their effects on reported medication administration error rates.

February 27, 2013

Failure mode and effects analysis outputs: are they valid?

August 15, 2012

Failure mode and effects analysis: too little for too much?

April 18, 2012

Is failure mode and effect analysis reliable?

May 27, 2009

Patient safety near misses – still missing opportunities to learn.

March 13, 2024

Making safety training stickier: a richer model of safety training engagement and transfer.

September 15, 2021

Quality of medication use in primary care—mapping the problem, working to a solution: a systematic review of the literature.

October 21, 2009

Measuring safety in older adult care homes: a scoping review of the international literature.

May 19, 2021

Analysis of intervention employability in pharmacy-related medication safety reports at a tertiary medical center.

March 27, 2024

The incidence and nature of prescribing and medication administration errors in paediatric inpatients.

February 24, 2010

A 6-year thematic review of reported incidents associated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation calls in a United Kingdom hospital.

April 27, 2022

Avoidability of hospital deaths and association with hospital-wide mortality ratios: retrospective case record review and regression analysis.

August 5, 2015

Exploring the sociotechnical intersection of patient safety and electronic health record implementation.

October 16, 2013

The impact of a closed-loop electronic prescribing and administration system on prescribing errors, administration errors and staff time: a before-and-after study.

August 22, 2007

Crisis recovery in surgery: error management and problem solving in safety-critical situations.

September 14, 2022

Medication errors with electronic prescribing (eP): two views of the same picture.

July 21, 2010

Preventable deaths due to problems in care in English acute hospitals: a retrospective case record review study.

August 1, 2012

Learning from preventable deaths: exploring case record reviewers' narratives using change analysis.

November 12, 2014

Relationship between preventable hospital deaths and other measures of safety: an exploratory study.

June 4, 2014

Assessing clinical handover between paramedics and the trauma team.

September 30, 2009

Related Resources

Remote assessment of real-world surgical safety checklist performance using the OR Black Box: a multi-institutional evaluation.

March 20, 2024

The ritualisation of the surgical safety checklist and its decoupling from patient safety goals.

March 13, 2024

Facilitators and barriers to the implementation of surgical safety checklist (SSC): an integrative review.

November 15, 2023

Barriers and facilitators associated with the implementation of surgical safety checklists: a qualitative systematic review.

September 27, 2023

Patient safety in the operating room.

September 21, 2023

The role of an assistant nurse in implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist: perception and perspectives.

July 5, 2023

Perioperative handoff enhancement opportunities through technology and artificial intelligence: a narrative review.

June 14, 2023

Use of technology to improve the adherence to surgical safety checklists in the operating room.

May 31, 2023

An evidence synthesis on perioperative handoffs: a call for balanced sociotechnical solutions.

April 5, 2023

Compliance with and barriers to implementing the surgical safety checklist: a mixed-methods study.

March 8, 2023

Human factors in anaesthesia: a narrative review.

February 15, 2023

Factors causing variation in World Health Organization surgical safety checklist effectiveness-a rapid scoping review.

December 14, 2022

Incidence and characteristics of errors detected by a short team briefing in pediatric anesthesia.

August 24, 2022

WebM&M Cases

Intraosseous Line Extravasation in a Pediatric Trauma Patient

April 27, 2022

Effect of the surgical safety checklist on provider and patient outcomes: a systematic review.

April 27, 2022

What are we missing? The quality of intraoperative handover before and after introduction of a checklist.

April 6, 2022

Five-year audit of adherence to an anaesthesia pre-induction checklist.

March 30, 2022

Increased adherence to perioperative safety guidelines associated with improved patient safety outcomes: a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised multicentre trial.

February 9, 2022

A retrospective audit of postoperative days alive and out of hospital, including before and after implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist.

February 2, 2022

"Some version, most of the time": the surgical safety checklist, patient safety, and the everyday experience of practice variation.

January 19, 2022

Impact of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist relative to its design and intended use: a systematic review and meta-meta-analysis.

November 24, 2021

Surgical teams' attitudes about surgical safety and the surgical safety checklist at 10 years: a multinational survey.

November 17, 2021

A systematic review of interventions used to enhance implementation of and compliance with the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist in adult surgery.

October 6, 2021

WebM&M Cases

Sudden Collapse During Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: Expect the Unexpected

August 25, 2021

WebM&M Cases

Local Anesthesia-Induced Coma During Total Knee Arthroplasty.

July 28, 2021

Systematic review of intraoperative anesthesia handoffs and handoff tools.

July 21, 2021

Safety and Quality in Perioperative Anesthesia Care.

April 7, 2021

How much and what local adaptation is acceptable? A comparison of 24 surgical safety checklists in Switzerland.

March 24, 2021

How does the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist fit with existing perioperative risk management strategies? An ethnographic study across surgical specialties.

March 18, 2020

The need for surgical safety checklists in neurosurgery now and in the future - a systematic review.

October 30, 2019

See More About The Topic

Operating Room

Physicians

Quality and Safety Professionals

Anesthesiology

Surgery

Impact of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist on patient safety.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Impact of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist on patient safety.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site