The Process list identifies three phases of an operation, each corresponding to a specific period in the normal flow of work:
- Before the induction of anesthesia (“sign in”),
- Before the incision of the skin (“time out”) and
- Before the patient leaves the operating room (“sign out”).
In each phase, a checklist coordinator must confirm that the surgery team has completed the listed tasks before it proceeds with the operation.
The Safe Surgery Saves Lives
Safety Checklist Use Yields 10 Percent Drop in Hospital Deaths
Experts say an estimated 80,000 patients a year with central lines get infected, some 31,000 die — nearly as many as die from breast cancer annually — and the cost of treating them may be as high as $3 billion nationally.
Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the study published in BMJ, the British Medical Journal. “Thousands of people are believed to have survived because of this effort to reduce bloodstream infections.”