Re: Postoperative Care Using a Secure Online Patient Portal: Changing the (Inter)Face of General Surgery
available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25775063 Editorial Comment: This study further underscores the importance of using a universal checklist for all patients undergoing surgery. The authors determined the effect of using a sign in, time out and sign out checklist for patients at 5 academic and community hospitals. It was next determined if the checklist was incomplete, partly complete or fully completed. Postoperative complications were then analyzed and compared among groups. Surprisingly full completion of the checklist was observed in only 62% of cases. Although checklist completion did not affect mortality, the risk of postoperative complications was significantly decreased when all components of the checklist were completed (16.9% vs 11.2%). Also it was determined that 14% of the complications could have been prevented if the full checklist had been implemented. Thus, it seems that careful attention and meticulous detail when completing all components of universal checklists for patients undergoing surgery are of benefit to our patients undergoing surgery.