Check, one, two, three

“Complication is inevitable, suffering is optional…”

Hau D Le

What are the leading causes of death worldwide? Well, cardiovascular disease is first, malignancy is second and third is the 30 days following surgery. I seem to have reinvented myself as a guru of surgical mortality. I no longer operate, I audit. The aim is to identify issues. Issues that have a solution, a correction, or can be avoided in the first place. Looking across this landscape there is one standout intervention, the 2009 WHO Surgical Checklist. This simple, easy to use, and ridiculously cheap tool consistently reduces the rate of surgical deaths by close to 50%. This is for both elective and emergency procedures, first world and third world hospitals. Complication rates and patient stays also plummet. The biggest contention is that some surgeons hate being told what to do. #actualnobrainer #letsmakelemonade