Care of Client During Preoperative Period

6.1. World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist

Another useful tool to promote patient safety in the surgical setting is the surgical safety checklist published by the World Health Organization. The checklist is based on the successful international program “Safe Surgery Saves Lives,” which incorporates validated checklists to be reviewed by the surgical team before induction of anesthesia, before skin incision, and before the patient leaves the operating room. It is inappropriate to place total reliance on the surgeon to identify the correct surgical site or to assume that the surgeon should never be questioned. The risk of error may be reduced by involving the entire surgical team in the site verification process and encouraging any member of that team to point out a possible error without fear of ridicule or reprimand.