None.

Use of the World Health Organization’s Surgical Safety Checklist has been associated with a significant reduction in major post-operative complications after inpatient surgery. We hypothesized that implementation in the United States would be cost saving at the hospital level. We performed a decision analysis comparing implementation of the checklist to existing practice in American hospitals. In a hospital with a baseline major complication rate after surgery of at least 3%, the checklist is cost saving once it prevents at least 5 major complications. Implementation and use of the checklist is a cost saving quality improvement strategy.

No abstract

Low-volume hospitals with certain systems characteristics seem to achieve better esophagectomy outcomes. A more comprehensive study of the beneficial characteristics of low-volume hospitals is warranted because high-volume hospitals are difficult to access for many patients.