Challenges facing the introduction of the WHO surgical safety checklist: A short experience in African countries
Surgery is an essential element of health care with an estimated 234 million surgical procedures performed each year in the world. Complications are common and occur in 3% to 16% of all surgical procedures.
This may suggest that at least 1 million patients die and 7 million patients are injured due to surgical related complications annually. Hence, the operating room (OR) is one of the most complex work environments in health care.3 As part of its efforts to improve patient safety the WHO launched a world challenge in 2008, the WHO Safe Surgery Saves Lives programme.
The aim of the programme is to harness political commitment and clinical will to address important patient safety issues, including inadequate anesthetic safety practice, avoidable surgical infection and poor communication among team members.
These have proved to be common, deadly and preventable problems in all the countries and settings. From 2008, the programme has focused on the use of a safe surgery checklist in operating rooms – the use of which has become increasingly widespread as studies have shown its use linked to a reduction in the rate of postoperative complications and deaths by more than one third.
