World health organization surgical safety checklist of all OT cases

Abstract

Background: The available literature shows that approximately 75 million patients are experiencing postoperative complications that lead to about 2 million deaths every year. Thereby, there is an immense need to take care of all safety precautions for the surgery listed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Aim and Objectives: The aim is (1) To study the impact of the implementation of a surgical safety checklist on patient safety. (2) To study the compliance of the surgical team to the implementation of a surgical safety checklist following an education program. Materials and Methods: The present study is a prospective randomized controlled study conducted at Santosh Medical College and Hospital, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). The study was conducted from December 2019 to November 2020. Results: More than half of the standards were above 50% implemented in the operation theaters. Of the standards of before skin incisions, above 50% of them were not implemented. However, of the implemented standards, >75% were followed. In addition, the standards of before any member of the team left the operating room, above 75% of them were appropriately implemented in our setup. Conclusion: We conclude that the use of the WHO checklist prevents complications and reduces the inhospital length of stay, changes in morbidity, and potentially mortality as well across a wide range of patients undergoing simple or complex surgical procedures in hospitals within a well-developed and funded health-care system.