Effects of Checklists in Surgical Care - a Study on Complications, Death and Quality of Patient Administrative Data

This project aims to produce a systematic review on present knowledge on effects of using safety checklists in medicine. Implementation of a checklist system throughout surgical care may reduce patient morbidity and mortality. The reliability of patient data is crucial to make firm conclusions as to such effects. This project aims to investigate if such morbidity and mortality effects are obtainable in two Norwegian hospitals while at the same time making a crucial evaluation of the patient data used in this study itself. We hypothesise 1. An updated systematic review of the research literature provide evidence that safety checklists use does enhance safety and reduces patient mortality and morbidity 2. Implementation of the patient safety checklist system will reduce patient mortality and morbidity in the checklist cohort, and subsequent effects on length of stay 3. The sensitivity and specificity of ICD-10 coding vs. medical journal information is poor, with study results to be adjusted accordingly.