Introduction

Checklists have now almost become status quo in current medicine.  My earliest encounter with the surgical checklist phenomenon was during PGY1 as an off-service intern. At this point, early adopters were running around with “Checkmark” safety-pins on their surgical caps, trying to encourage everyone to take up the cause. There were jokes and exasperated sighs each time a case started, but most complied with the task at the behest of opinion leaders (often the senior OR nurses in the room). Two years later I returned to see a culture change. OR teams seemed to communicate better, things seemed to flow.

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