Surgery checklist lowers death rate

Surgical teams that followed a basic checklist in the operating room reduced the rate of deaths and complications by more than a third, according to a year-long, eight-nation project. The low-cost, low-tech intervention tested in eight hospitals around the globe could have enormous financial implications. If every operating room in the United States adopted the surgical checklist, the nation could save between $15 billion and $25 billion a year on the costs of treating avoidable complications, according to calculations by the authors.