A Scoping Review of Patient Safety Checklists in Pediatrics

To examine the utilization and effectiveness of safety checklists in pediatric clinical care.

A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Medline to identify studies related to the development and/or implementation of patient safety checklists in pediatrics. All study designs were included for citations published through September 2023.

Following abstract and full-text screening, 74 studies remained for data extraction and analysis. Pediatric surgery emerged as the main setting for checklists use (n = 35), followed by Intensive Care Units (n = 21), and Emergency Departments (n = 9). Of the 74 reviewed papers, 37 (50%) designed and developed checklists. The co-design with stakeholders was the most frequently employed design method, with 25 studies reporting its use. However, only two studies included inputs from patients or parents/guardians. Of the 74 studies, 34 (46%) assessed the impact of checklists on patient safety outcomes and quality of care. Among these, 27 (79%) studies reported a reduction in incidents and adverse events, along with an improvement in quality of care when checklists were used. Six studies (18%) found no impact of checklist use on quality and safety of care, while one (3%) found that the checklist negatively impacted patient outcomes.

The review underscores the use of checklists across a wide variety of pediatric care settings. Pediatric safety checklists are valuable tools for improving care quality and safety. Future work needs to be done using rigorous study designs to develop more conclusive, generalizable.