AHRQ WebM&M Features Patient Safety Expert Lucian Leape, M.D., on Surgical Checklists

The current issue of AHRQ WebM&M features an interview about patient safety checklists with Lucian Leape, M.D., adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health and chairman of the Lucian Leape Institute of the National Patient Safety Foundation. Dr. Leape is a health policy innovator whose groundbreaking research has focused on patient safety and quality of care. The interview is based on a study that reported that an effort to mandate surgical checklists in Canada had no beneficial effect. The issue also features another interview on the same topic with David Urbach, M.D., professor of surgery and health policy management and evaluation at the University of Toronto. The Spotlight Case is about a woman who was admitted to a hospital with a presumed transient ischemic attack and possible gastrointestinal bleeding. During her second day in the hospital, she was found unconscious and in cardiac arrest.