WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
As anesthesiologists are key providers in the operating room setup, their participation or even their triggering of the surgical safety checklist is important to ensure patients are receiving a safe care in the perioperative setup.
Around 230 million surgeries are performed annually around the globe. Although surgical care is needed for the treatment of many diseases, it is associated with a high rate of complications (3% to 17%) and death. The complication themselves represent a burden on public health that is worth studying and decreasing.
At least half of those complications are preventable, this is why the World Health Organization published in 2008 a list of guidelines and best practices to ensure patient safety in the operating room.
Those are summarized in the form of a checklist that is designed to create a collective awareness. It is to be used in three steps: before induction of anesthesia, before incision and at the end of the surgeries. Some studies have proven this checklist to decrease the morbidity rate by 36%.

The implementation of this checklist will help operating rooms in adopting a team approach and in achieving behavioral changes and system changes.