Background Globally, surgical care plays a vital role in health care. Unfortunately, complications arise in approximately 5 to 18% of surgical procedures. However, research has shown that following the surgical safety checklist provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) can significantly reduce these complications and surgery-related fatalities. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy and completion of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist.

Materials and Method From October 3, 2022 to February 28, 2023, a comprehensive observational study was conducted involving 300 patients who underwent elective and emergency surgeries. The completion rates for the different stages of surgery, namely sign-in, time-out, and sign-out, were determined using the SPSS 22.0 software.

Result In our research, we specifically examined the completion of the checklist for 300 patients who underwent important procedures within a span of 5 months. For each patient, we ensured that their identities, procedures, and consent were verified with a 100% success rate. Additionally, we thoroughly checked the anesthesia equipment and drugs for safety in every case. Furthermore, all essential images were consistently displayed for each patient, achieving a 100% adherence to this crucial aspect of the process.

Conclusion In general, the level of completeness of the checklist was satisfactory across the sign-in, time-out, and sign-out phases. While this study did not assess the specific outcomes, it is presumed that incomplete data may have exposed patients to potential perioperative complications.

E.G. contributed to the study design, data acquisition, drafting, and critical revision of the article, and provided final approval of the manuscript. M.M. was involved in data acquisition and also approved the manuscript. Both authors have thoroughly reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

All data generated or analyzed during this study were included in this published article. Although some data that support the findings of this study are available from Ribat University Hospital authority, restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of Ribat University Hospital authority.

The ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Ribat University Hospital authority on 11/8/2022 no.111/33. Experimental protocols were approved by Ribat University Hospital authority licensing committee and the study protocol were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines applied at the hospital.

The data used in the study are anonymized and informed consents were obtained from the participants.

Received: 12 September 2024

Accepted: 21 November 2024

Article published online:
12 December 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.
333 Seventh Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001, USA