The goal of the Safe Surgery Saves Lives Challenge is to improve the safety of surgical care around the world by ensuring adherence to proven standards of care in all states. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist has improved compliance with standards and decreased complications from surgery in eight pilot hospitals where is was evaluated. Learn how to implement the checklist in your own facility - see the tools and resources below.
Tools and resources
The 2009 edition of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, implementation manual and WHO Guidelines for Safe Surgery are now available for download in English only. For other languages, please see the 2008 edition. We aim to have the checklist and manual available in the other five WHO official languages by early 2010.
Frequently asked questions Answers to questions about the checklist and its implementation Frequently asked questions
Starter Kit This starter kit will help administrators, clinicians, nurses, and other patient safety personnel walk through the process of implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist in a facility. Download starter kit (English only) [pdf 252kb]
Speakers' kit Use this speakers' kit to teach your colleagues about the Safe Surgery Saves Lives campaign and to ask them to consider implementing the checklist at your institution. Speakers' Kit
