WHO Surgical Safety Checklist phases
Reports which phase of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist is incomplete.
Open the tool → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Sign In: Identity, site, procedure and consent confirmed
- Yes
- Sign In: Site marked, or marking does not apply
- Yes
- Sign In: Anesthesia machine and medication check complete
- Yes
- Sign In: Pulse oximeter on the patient and working
- Yes
- Sign In: Known allergies established
- Yes
- Sign In: Difficult airway or aspiration risk considered
- Yes
- Sign In: Risk of significant blood loss considered
- Yes
- Time Out: Everyone introduced by name and role
- Yes
- Time Out: Patient, procedure and site aloud
- Yes
- Time Out: Antibiotic prophylaxis within the last hour
- Yes
The other 2 values
- Time Out: Critical events reviewed by each
- Yes
- Time Out: Essential imaging displayed, or not needed
- Yes
Result: Sign In and Time Out complete, Sign Out not recorded
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Sign In
- Before induction of anesthesia, with at least the nurse and the anesthetist.
- Time Out
- Before skin incision, with the nurse, the anesthetist and the surgeon.
- Sign Out
- Before the patient leaves the operating room: counts, specimen labels, equipment problems, recovery concerns.
- The naming
- The whole checklist is routinely called the time out. Time Out is one phase of three, and Sign Out is the one that goes missing.
- The moment
- A phase carried out at a different moment is not that phase, and ticking it afterwards is not doing it.
- What it is
- A prompt for something spoken aloud by one coordinator, expected to be adapted locally rather than completed as a form.
What you enter
- Sign In: Identity, site, procedure and consent confirmed
- Sign In: Site marked, or marking does not apply
- Sign In: Anesthesia machine and medication check complete
- Sign In: Pulse oximeter on the patient and working
- Sign In: Known allergies established
- Sign In: Difficult airway or aspiration risk considered, with equipment and help available
- Sign In: Risk of significant blood loss considered, with access and fluids planned
- Time Out: Everyone introduced by name and role
- Time Out: Patient, procedure and site aloud
- Time Out: Antibiotic prophylaxis within the last hour, or not indicated
The other 7 fields
- Time Out: Critical events reviewed by each
- Time Out: Essential imaging displayed, or not needed
- Sign Out: Procedure named aloud by the nurse
- Sign Out: Instrument, sponge and needle counts complete
- Sign Out: Specimens labeled and read back, patient name included
- Sign Out: Equipment problems named
- Sign Out: Key concerns for recovery and management reviewed
How this is calculated
World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines for Safe Surgery 2009: Safe Surgery Saves Lives. Geneva: WHO; 2009. Outcome report: Haynes AB, Weiser TG, Berry WR, et al. N Engl J Med. 2009;360(5):491-499. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.