Surgical Checklists: Are Hospitals That Don’t Use Them Committing Malpractice?

[Donnachaidh]

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/11/17/surgical-checklists-are-hospitals-that-dont-use-them-committing-malpractice/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CampaignSilo+%28Jane+Hamsher+Campaign+Silo%29&utm_content=Twitter

Simple Checklists. NASA uses them, pilots use them, and now there is even more compelling evidence that every surgeon should use them. This is the major takeaway from study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (from Businessweek):

Between 2007 and 2009, six hospitals in the Netherlands implemented a series of 11 checklists that covered every aspect of surgical care from the moment the patient arrived at the hospital until discharge. <...>

After implementing the checklists, complications fell from 27.3 per 100 patients to 16.7 per 100. The proportion of patients with one or more complications fell from 15.4 percent to 10.6 percent, while the in-hospital death rate fell from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent.

These improvements are amazing. The in-hospital death rate was cut nearly in half.

This study, like others on this issue, shows that the full adoption of surgical checklists at every hospital in American would likely save billions of dollars, dramatically reduce medical errors, decrease unnecessary suffering, and potentially save thousands of lives a year.

The best part is the adoption of checklists carries only a very small cost.

MORE at the link ---

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Proof that you need checklists, not "Tort Reform".

[Warpy]

2. Many hospitals have them, but they vary from hospital to hospital

and therein lies the problem. Standardization would help everybody, I think.

[w8liftinglady]

3. i agree..and have seen these checklists work

hell...people are human.the checklists get confirmation from 2 staff...with the difference between 'right" and "left' being a big one.
we are expected to perform these with the physician...and they performed it on me,before my surgery.
No exception,no fear of reprisal for refusing to do a procedure without confirmation.Doctors,without exception,have been grateful for the extra set of eyes.

[Warpy]

4. Right, it took a couple of weeks for that damn Sharpie dot to wear off

above the eye they transplanted. Good thing I was too blind to see it without a great deal of difficulty.

Unfortunately, too many hospital checklists focus on the disposition of patient belongings before and during surgery and too little on the patient.