The World Health Organization's ("WHO") envoy for patient safety is a proud and impassioned advocate for the organization's surgical safety checklist, for which he says strict compliance greatly reduces the risk of hospital-associated infections, medication errors and unnecessary surgery complications.

"Frankly, if I was having an operation tomorrow, I wouldn't go into a hospital that wasn't using the checklist, because I wouldn't regard it as safe," Liam Donaldson told reporters at a recent news briefing.

It might raise the eyebrows on some to note that the admonition applies with special vigor to American hospitals, which are frequently touted as being at the apex, or at least among the very best, of hospitals worldwide.

Although that claim is not likely to be hotly debated, it certainly is qualified by the troubling statistics related to health care-associated infections acquired by patients in American medical facilities.

According to WHO, a much higher death rate exists in U.S. hospitals for patients who suffer an infection following admittance than is the case in European facilities. In Europe, there are approximately 4.5 million hospital-acquired infections each year, which result in about 37,000 patient deaths. Although there are far fewer such infections in the United States each year (about 1.7 million), the death rate resulting from them is nearly three times higher, with about 100,000 fatalities.

Which leads back to Donaldson's earnest plea for all hospitals globally: Use the checklist to cut down on medication errors, the spread of infection and other medical harms.

Related Resource: Reuters, "Going into hospital far riskier than flying: WHO" July 21, 2011