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

Source:  Annals of Surgery 261/5 pp. 821-8

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Date of publication: May 2015

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell: There have been reports of reductions of morbidity and mortality after implementation of the World Health Organization’s Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) in pre-/post designed studies without controls. The authors of this study report a randomized controlled trial of the SSC. They concluded that implementation of the WHO SSC was associated with robust reduction in morbidity and length of in-hospital stay and some reduction in mortality.

Length of Publication:  8 pages

Application of the WHO surgical safety checklist outside the operating theatre: medicine can learn from surgery

Source:  Clinical Medicine 14/5 pp. 468-74.

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Date of publication:  October 2014

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell: Use of the World Health Organization (WHO) safety checklist for invasive medical procedures is not yet routine. These procedures are becoming ever more complex and involve higher-risk patients, with the need for general anaesthesia on occasion. The potential for error is increasing and the need for a safety checklist is more apparent. The checklist can be modified to provide a framework for specialty-specific safety checks, enhanced team-working and communication for invasive medical procedures. The authors carried out an audit on use of the WHO checklist in 20 cases under general anaesthesia in the quaternary referral cardiac catheterisation laboratory. They discovered use of the safety tool was poor and identified two ‘near miss’ incidents within the audit period. The authors developed and implemented a modified WHO checklist for the specific challenges faced in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory. Following a staff education programme, a subsequent audit of 34 cases demonstrated improvement in all sections with no patient safety incidents during the post-intervention audit period.

Length of Publication:  7 pages

5th National Audit Project (NAP5) on accidental awareness during general anaesthesia: summary of main findings and risk factors

Source:  British Journal of Anaesthesia 113/4 pp. 549-59.

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Date of publication:  October 2014

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell: This paper presents the main findings of the 5th National Audit Project (NAP5) on accidental awareness during general anaesthesia (AAGA). It is one of a series of papers. The authors recommend that an anaesthetic checklist, to be an integral part of the World Health Organization Safer Surgery checklist, is introduced as an aid to preventing accidental awareness.

Length of Publication:  1 web page

Compliance and use of the World Health Organization checklist in U.K. operating theatres

Source:  British Journal of Surgery vol/iss 100/12 pp. 1664-1670

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Date of publication:  November 2013

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  The World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist is reported to reduce surgical morbidity and mortality. It is mandatory in the NHS and hospital audit data show high compliance rates, but direct observation suggests that actual performance may be suboptimal. In this paper, at each operation that was observed, WHO time-out and sign-out attempts were recorded, and the quality of the time-out was evaluated. The authors concluded that meaningful compliance with the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist is much lower than data suggests.

Length of Publication:  7 pages

Some important notes:  Please contact your local NHS Library for the full text of the article. Follow this link to find your local NHS Library.

Increasing patient safety in healthcare

Source:  PublicService.co.uk

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Date of publication: May 2012

Publication type:  News item

In a nutshell:  An example of how a hospital in Sweden, using the WHO checklist, make improvements in patient safety.

Length of publication:  1 web page