Evaluating the Global Impact of Surgical Checklists

The annual number of surgeries performed worldwide outnumbers even childbirth. What do the latest studies examining surgical checklists tell us about their impact on reducing global morbidity and mortality? Sharing insights on this subject is Dr. Alex Haynes, surgical research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts General Hospital, and lead author of a recent study evaluating the WHO surgical safety checklist. Dr. Haynes and colleagues successfully demonstrated that the use of a simple surgical checklist during major operations can lower the incidence of deaths and complications by more than one-third. Dr. Mary Leuchars hosts.