Time-Out and Checklists: A Survey of Rural and Urban Operating Room Personnel.

Surgical safety checklists were introduced to improve patient safety. Urban and rural hospitals are influenced by differing factors, but how these factors affect patient care is unknown. This study examined time-out and checklist processes in rural and urban operating rooms and found that although checklist use has been adopted in many organizations, use is inconsistent across both settings. An understanding of these variations is needed to improve utilization.