Safe Surgery 2015: South Carolina

Recognizing South Carolina's unique collaborative approach to health care safety and the successful results, Dr. Atul Gawande, a worldwide leader in patient safety, selected South Carolina to partner with him on a surgical safety initiative. Already all 61 acute care hospitals in our state have committed to implementing the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist as a routine component of surgical care. Our goal is to put it in place in every operating room in South Carolina for every surgical patient.

At least 500 of the 5,000 patients who die each year following surgeries in South Carolina hospitals should be saved, along with an estimated $28 million, if his pre-surgery checklist is only minimally successful, Gawande estimates.

Dr. Gawande led the World Health Organization's Safe Surgery Saves Lives Initiative which resulted in development of a three-part surgical checklist that was demonstrated to reduce surgery-related complications by more than one-third. Most recently, Dr. Gawande documented his experience creating and testing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist in his New York Times Bestseller, "The Checklist Manifesto".

Read more about Dr. Gawande and how the checklist can save money while improving care and reducing complications.