Patient safety checklists
The purpose of a checklist is to detect a potential error before it leads to harm.
Human error in the complex world of modern medicine is inevitable. Harm to patients as the result of these errors is not. Checklists allow complex pathways of care to function with high reliability by giving users the opportunity to pause and take stock of their actions before proceeding to the next step. The WHO Surgical Safety checklist and others have improved reliability and helped to standardize care for thousands of individuals globally.
What we are doing
WHO Patient Safety is currently putting together a framework for identifying a range of clinical care processes where checklists would save patient lives and reduce serious harm. WHO Patient Safety, with help from other collaborating departments within WHO, is already developing additional patient care checklists over a range of disciplines, including labor & delivery, neonatal and trauma care.
