Surgical Safety Checklist Compliance

Patient safety and quality improvements are top priorities at North York General Hospital. Our patients can expect safe, high quality care, and one tool used to help ensure a positive patient care experience is a surgical safety checklist.

If you undergo a surgery at North York General Hospital, you can expect that the surgical safety checklist will be used as part of the procedure. It will be used by your health care team before, during and after your surgery to help the health care team familiarize themselves with your medical history and any special requirements that may be needed for your individual case. 

What is the surgical safety checklist?

The surgical safety checklist is a standardized tool that is used by a team of operating room professionals (nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and others) to discuss important details about each surgical patient. The surgical safety checklist has three phases, before, during and after surgery. 

The SSC reduces reliance on memory so that one person is not responsible for remembering every single step needed for a safe surgery.

In many ways, the surgical checklist is similar to an airline pilot’s checklist used just before take-off. It is a final check prior to surgery used to make sure everyone knows the important medical information they need to know about the patient, all equipment is available and in working order, and everyone is ready to proceed. 

View the surgical safety checklist on the Health Quality Ontario website.

Learn more about the surgical safety checklist on the Canadian Patient Safety Institute website.

Performance

See the surgical safety checklist compliance rate at the General site and the Branson Ambulatory Care Centre of North York General Hospital. 

The rate reflects the percentage of compliance, by site, where all three phases of the SSC were performed for all surgical procedures during the period. 

Like other Ontario hospitals, the compliance rate of North York General Hospital is posted on our website twice a year.