• Douglas E Paull, Lisa M Mazzia, Scott D Wood, Max S Theis, Lori D Robinson, Brian Carney, Julia Neily, Peter D Mills, and James P Bagian.
• National Center for Patient Safety, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-0486, USA. douglas.paull@va.gov
• Am. J. Surg. 2010 Nov 1;200(5):620-3.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of checklist-driven preoperative briefings and postoperative debriefings during the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical team training program.MethodsA briefing score (1, never started; 2, started then discontinued; 3, maintained on original targeted cases; 4, expanded to other services; 5, briefing all cases, all services) was established at 10.1 ± .3 months after introduction of the checklist. Outcomes included antibiotic and deep venous thrombosis prophylaxis compliance rates before and after use of the checklist.ResultsAntibiotic (97.0% ± .1% vs 92.1% ± 1.5%; P = .01) and deep venous thrombosis (95.7% ± .8% vs 85.1% ± 4.6%; P = .05) prophylaxis compliance rates were higher after initiation of a surgical checklist.ConclusionsChecklist-driven preoperative briefings and postoperative debriefings are associated with improvements in patient safety for surgical patients.Published by Elsevier Inc.

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