The World Health Organization's 'Surgical Safety Checklist': should evidence-based initiatives be enforced in hospital policy?

Objectives: To assess the awareness and voluntary usage of the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist (WHO SSC), just prior to its mandatory implementation.

Design: Questionnaire-based, prospective, telephone survey.

Setting: Patients are exposed to systematic risks and principles of surgical safety are inconsistently applied even in sophisticated settings.