Surgery checklist saves lives

It's all over the news here, but you may not have heard yet: researchers recommend that surgeons have the same type of checklist that pilots have to do before take off.

Surgeons are human and, unfortunately, humans make mistakes sometimes. But many mistakes are avoidable if people take the time to ensure certain precautions are in place. This would not only help reduce avoidable complications and deaths in countries like Canada and the United States, it would be a big help in reducing the much higher death rates in the poorer, less technically advanced countries.

The study involved almost 4000 patients before the checklist was used and almost 4000 after. In some places, the overall major complication rate dropped from 11% to 7% and in some cases, the death rates dropped by 40%.

On the practical side, a check list like this can save millions of dollars in costs that result from some of the avoidable complications.

You can read more over at the Globe and Mail: Surgical checklist cuts complications by a third but you can also watch a video of the story at CTV.