Effects of the introduction of the WHO "Surgical Safety Checklist" on in-hospital mortality: a cohort study

Ann Surg. 2012 Jan;255(1):44-9. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e31823779ae.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of implementation of the WHO's Surgical Safety Checklist on mortality and to determine to what extent the potential effect was related to checklist compliance.

Background: Marked reductions in postoperative complications after implementation of a surgical checklist have been reported. As compliance to the checklists was reported to be incomplete, it remains unclear whether the benefits obtained were through actual completion of a checklist or from an increase in overall awareness of patient safety issues.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 25,513 adult patients undergoing non-day case surgery in a tertiary university hospital. Hospital administrative data and electronic patient records were used to obtain data. In-hospital mortality within 30 days after surgery was the main outcome and effect estimates were adjusted for patient characteristics, surgical specialty and comorbidity.

Results: After checklist implementation, crude mortality decreased from 3.13% to 2.85% (P = 0.19). After adjustment for baseline differences, mortality was significantly decreased after checklist implementation (odds ratio [OR] 0.85; 95% CI, 0.73-0.98). This effect was strongly related to checklist compliance: the OR for the association between full checklist completion and outcome was 0.44 (95% CI, 0.28-0.70), compared to 1.09 (95% CI, 0.78-1.52) and 1.16 (95% CI, 0.86-1.56) for partial or noncompliance, respectively.

Conclusions: Implementation of the WHO Surgical Checklist reduced in-hospital 30-day mortality. Although the impact on outcome was smaller than previously reported, the effect depended crucially upon checklist compliance.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Checklist / standards*
  • Checklist / statistics & numerical data
  • Cohort Studies
  • Female
  • Guideline Adherence / statistics & numerical data
  • Guideline Adherence / trends
  • Health Plan Implementation / organization & administration
  • Hospital Mortality / trends*
  • Hospitals, University
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Netherlands
  • Odds Ratio
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care / statistics & numerical data
  • Patient Safety / standards*
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Survival Rate
  • Utilization Review
  • World Health Organization*