Patient safety and the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist

Some innovations benefit hospitals in all countries, and not just the developing world. This is true for patient safety.

Patient safety is a comparatively new discipline that has rapidly risen to star status. This rise began in the late 1990s, with eye-opening reports documenting the scale of harm caused by medical errors.

These reports had media appeal, which gave them popular and political traction. And understandably so. Medical errors cause deep indignation. Health care should heal, not hurt, injure, or kill.

To address the large number of deaths caused by surgical errors, WHO adapted a simple checklist used by pilots in the airline industry, one of the safest industries in the world.

The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist was introduced in 2008 and has since been widely applied, significantly reducing surgical errors. Studies suggest that, if fully implemented, nearly half of the estimated one million deaths caused by surgical errors could be averted.

Building on this success, WHO has developed a Safe Childbirth Checklist to address the huge burden of preventable maternal and newborn deaths, especially in low-income settings.

http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2013/world_hospital_congress_20130618/en/