Save tens of thousands of lives and $20 billion annually
By Don Parcher
January 15th, 2009
Another convert.
A report in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that the use of a 19-step Surgical Safety Checklist reduced deaths from surgery by more than 40% in eight participating hospitals. One of the report’s authors, Atul Gawande, says that use of the checklist in all hospitals could save tens of thousands of lives and $20 billon in medical costs each year. The checklist is said to only take two minutes to complete and is based on checklists used in the aviation industry. The checklist is at Surgical Safety Checklist and the full report is at New England Journal of Medicine

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