Recent demonstrations of the impact of checklists in perioperative crisis management have accelerated interest in making these aids broadly available. Anyone who has managed a malignant hyperthermia crisis or anaphylactic reaction knows that there are opportunities for every member of the perioperative team to contribute to a successful outcome.
With this in mind, the Council on Surgical and Perioperative Safety (CSPS) has partnered with Ariadne Labs at the Harvard School of Public Health to launch a coordinated campaign to stimulate the availability of crisis checklists. The CSPS is a unique collaborative of the seven major perioperative professional organizations (see box). The organizations’ combined membership exceeds 250,000 and the total number of individuals in the seven professions is more than 2 million. The Council provides an ideal platform to deliver a consistent and unified message about the value of checklists and the strategies for introducing them into practice.
One compelling observation...
