• Erik K Mayer, Nick Sevdalis, Shantanu Rout, Jochem Caris, Stephanie Russ, Jenny Mansell, Rachel Davies, Petros Skapinakis, Charles Vincent, Thanos Athanasiou, Krishna Moorthy, and Ara Darzi.
• Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.
• Ann. Surg. 2016 Jan 1;263(1):58-63.

ObjectiveTo evaluate impact of WHO checklist compliance on risk-adjusted clinical outcomes, including the influence of checklist components (Sign-in, Time-out, Sign-out) on outcomes.BackgroundThere remain unanswered questions surrounding surgical checklists as a quality and safety tool, such as the impact in cases of differing complexity and the extent of checklist implementation.MethodsData were collected from surgical admissions (6714 patients) from March 2010 to June 2011 at 5 academic and community hospitals. The primary endpoint was any complication, including mortality, occurring before hospital discharge. Checklist usage was recorded as checklist completed in full/partly. Multilevel modeling was performed to investigate the association between complications/mortality and checklist completion.ResultsSignificant variability in checklist usage was found: although at least 1 of the 3 components was completed in 96.7% of cases, the entire checklist was only completed in 62.1% of cases. Checklist completion did not affect mortality reduction, but significantly lowered risk of postoperative complication (16.9% vs. 11.2%), and was largely noticed when all 3 components of the checklist had been completed (odds ratio = 0.57, 95% confidence interval: 0.37-0.87, P < 0.01). Calculated population-attributable fractions showed that 14% (95% confidence interval: 7%-21%) of the complications could be prevented if full completion of the checklist was implemented.ConclusionsChecklist implementation was associated with reduced case-mix-adjusted complications after surgery and was most significant when all 3 components of the checklist were completed. Full, as opposed to partial, checklist completion provides a health policy opportunity to improve checklist impact on surgical safety and quality of care.

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