Surgical Safety — Back to Basics

In industrialized countries, the perioperative death rate for inpatient surgery ranges from 0.4% to 0.8%, and the rate of major complications ranges from 3% to 17%. Using the World Health Organization’s guidelines on maximizing patient safety during surgery, researchers developed a 19-item checklist to enhance surgical team communications and consistency of care. Data from eight hospitals in eight countries were collected prospectively for 3733 noncardiac surgeries that were performed before introduction of the checklist and for 3955 that were performed afterward. Checklist items were as follows: patient verifying his or her own identity, surgical site, and procedure; marking surgical site; using pulse oximetry; formal pause for team member…