Surgical safety checklist
Patient Safety
Definition. The surgical safety checklist is a structured tool, promoted by WHO, that teams use at key moments of an operation to confirm critical safety steps and improve communication.
Explanation
The checklist covers sign-in before anaesthesia, time-out before incision and sign-out before the patient leaves theatre. WHO continues to monitor its adoption as part of global patient safety efforts (World Health Organization, 2024).
Its effect depends on how it is performed: black box analyses of operating rooms show that team performance during the checklist is linked to patient outcomes (Al Abbas et al., 2024). Superficial compliance yields little benefit.
Related concepts
Operating room management Human factors Adverse event Psychological safety
Read on The Health Topics
- Assuring Safety Across Clinical Processes
- Patient Safety in Surgery: Insights from 2024–2025 Research
References
Al Abbas, A. I., Meier, J., Daniel, W., Cadeddu, J. A., Bartolome, S., Willett, D. L., … Zeh, H. J. (2024). Impact of team performance on the surgical safety checklist on patient outcomes: An operating room black box analysis. Surgical Endoscopy, 38(10), 5613–5622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-024-11064-7
World Health Organization. (2024). Global patient safety report 2024. World Health Organization.
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Surgical safety checklist. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/surgical-safety-checklist/