BackgroundSurgical complications represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality with the rate of major complications after inpatient surgery estimated at 3–17% in industrialised countries. The purpose of this review was to summarise experience with surgical checklist use and efficacy for improving patient safety.MethodsA search of four databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and the Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials) was conducted from 1 January 2000 to 26 October 2012. Articles describing actual use of the WHO checklist, the Surgical Patient Safety System (SURPASS) checklist, a wrong-site surgery checklist or an anaesthesia equipment checklist were eligible for inclusion (this manuscript summarises all but the anaesthesia equipment checklists, which are described in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality publication).ResultsWe included a total of 33 studies. We report a variety of outcomes including avoidance of adverse events, facilitators and barriers to implementation. Checklists have been adopted in a wide variety of settings and represent a promising strategy for improving the culture of patient safety and perioperative care in a wide variety of settings. Surgical checklists were associated with increased detection of potential safety hazards, decreased surgical complications and improved communication among operating staff. Strategies for successful checklist implementation included enlisting institutional leaders as local champions, incorporating staff feedback for checklist adaptation and avoiding redundancies with existing systems for collecting information.ConclusionsSurgical checklists represent a relatively simple and promising strategy for addressing surgical patient safety worldwide. Further studies are needed to evaluate to what degree checklists improve clinical outcomes and whether improvements may be more pronounced in particular settings.

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The Friedreich Ataxia Rating Scale, performance measures, and performance measure composites provide valid assessments of disease progression in Friedreich ataxia.

; for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation Medical Care Guidelines for Adults with Down Syndrome Workgroup IMPORTANCE Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal condition, and average life expectancy has increased substantially, from 25 years in 1983 to 60 years in 2020. Despite the unique clinical comorbidities among adults with Down syndrome, there are no clinical guidelines for the care of these patients. OBJECTIVE To develop an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for adults with Down syndrome. EVIDENCE REVIEW The Global Down Syndrome Foundation Medical Care Guidelines for Adults with Down Syndrome Workgroup (n = 13) developed 10 Population/Intervention/ Comparison/Outcome (PICO) questions for adults with Down syndrome addressing multiple clinical areas including mental health (2 questions), dementia, screening or treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, osteoporosis, atlantoaxial instability, thyroid disease, and celiac disease. These questions guided the literature search in MEDLINE,

Key Points Question Which hospital-led interventions are associated with reducing length of stay (LOS) for high-risk populations? Findings In this systematic review including 19 systematic reviews, 8 strategies for reducing LOS in high-risk populations were identified: discharge planning, geriatric assessment, medication management, clinical pathways, interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary care, case management, hospitalist services, and telehealth. Interventions were most frequently designed for older patients or patients with heart failure and were often associated with inconsistent outcomes in LOS, readmissions, and mortality across populations. Meaning This systematic review found that across all high-risk populations, there are inconsistent results on the effectiveness associated with interventions to reduce LOS, such as discharge planning, which are often widely used by health systems.