Join us on the Surgical Safety Checklist Sprint Action Day: March 10th

In December 2008, at IHI's National Forum for Quality Improvement in Health Care, Dr. Don Berwick challenged us all to join IHI in a unique social enterprise:

For EVERY hospital in the US to test the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist at least ONCE with ONE operating room team by April 1, 2009.

The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist has shown tremendous potential to save lives. A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that implementation of the checklist can reduce inpatient complications and prevent deaths. The one year pilot study has the potential to prevent 9,360,000 complications and 1, 638,000 deaths (assuming 234 million operations performed globally every year). Watch the checklist in action:



Since December 2008, look what's been happening...


How are things going?

Join us on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 for Sprint Action Day to find out! Sprint Action Day is a day designed to support and accelerate testing and use of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. Have questions? Has your local hospital tested the Checklist? Need advice on testing the Checklist? Already tested the Checklist? Tell us how it went! Have questions on how students can get involved?

Hear from Dr. Don Berwick, IHI Director Fran Griffin, and other key participants from 3-4pm ET. Click here for more details.

Also, check out the Sprint Action Day blog!