Surgical Safety Check List

Surgical Safety Check List

To assist operating teams in reducing the number of events, including inadequate anesthetic safety practices, avoidable surgical infection and poor communication among team members, WHO Patient Safety-in consultation with surgeons, anesthetists, nurses, patient safety experts and patients around the world-has identified ten essential objectives for safe surgery. These were compiled into the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (See ANNEX-1). The aim of this Checklist (available at www.who.int/safesurgery) is to reinforce accepted safety practices and foster better communication and teamwork between clinical disciplines. The Checklist is intended as a tool for use by clinicians for improving the safety of their operations and reducing unnecessary surgical deaths and complications.