How did the WHO Surgical Checklist change patient outcomes? It cut the inpatient death rate by about fifty percent. Let that sit. A short list of basic things that people, positions, and staff confirm before surgery, and half the deaths that were happening stopped happening. This came out of Atul Gawande's work, and it is now used in hospitals worldwide. What I find telling is the reaction. A lot of surgeons in the UK were furious, because the list made them feel like they had not been doing their jobs. Maybe it was not a full fifty percent of needless deaths, [...]