Dive Brief:
- Results of a new study published in JAMA Surgery suggest that checklist-based quality improvement initiatives may not be effective at preventing wrong-site surgeries or infections.
- Researchers examined Michigan Hospital Association's Keystone Surgery effort, a quality improvement intervention based on a successful Keystone ICU program that involved checklists. Next, surgical outcomes were examined in 64,891 patients in 29 hospitals from 2006 through 2010 to see if implementing the Keystone Surgery program was associated with better outcomes for general surgery patients. Researchers paid special attention to surgical site infections, complications and 30-day mortality.
- Researchers found that program implementation was not associated with improved outcomes in the 14 hospitals participating in Keystone Surgery.
Dive Insight:
Checklists are big in operating rooms and other healthcare settings in well-intentioned efforts to prevent adverse patient events. And proponents cite studies that emphasize their effectiveness.
Could it be that the clinicians in this recent study suffered a variation of "alert fatigue" and just started checking off items on lists without thinking? Maybe. But, like the report said, more research is needed before dismissing checklists—something relatively simple, low-cost, and promising—altogether.