Surgical Checklist

Surgical checklists have an important role in the provision of effective and safe surgery. Evidence demonstrates the use of surgical checklists reduces likelihood of complications following surgery, and may improve surgical outcomes.

The purpose of a surgical checklist is to initiate, guide, and formalize communication among the team members conducting a surgical procedure and to integrate these steps into surgical workflow. Surgical procedures are increasingly complex aspects of health services, and represent significant risk of potentially avoidable harm. Data show substantial cost savings if surgical checklists were widely used. Semel et al estimate savings in the USA of 15-25 billion. Surgical checklists have been developed and are available from Canadian (Canadian Patient Safety Institute) and international (World Health Organization) sources.

In the summer of 2010, the Yukon Hospital Corporation implemented a Surgical Checklist based on examples provided by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and Vancouver General Hospital.