Just Do It: The Surgical Checklist

Abstract For the second Global Patient Safety Challenge, the WHO chose making surgery safer. My involvement was minor. One day, a year or so after the hand hygiene program started, I received a call from Pauline Kelly, my friend from the Reporting Guidelines project. The World Alliance leaders had decided to do a Patient Safety Challenge on a surgical topic. This made good sense, since surgical mishaps were well recognized as a major cause of mortality worldwide. Nearly half of all AEs discovered in the Medical Practice Study were related to a surgical operation. She asked me if I thought Atul Gawande would be willing to lead it.