Implementación del listado de verificación de cirugía segura

background: the checklist procedure is a useful tool within the strategies for safety of surgical interventions. objective: utility of the checklist for detection of technical or human failures. place: operating rooms division of state university hospital. design: observational prospective exploratory with retrospective analysis. population: consecutive scheduled operations during 12 months. method: indication loudly in different operative moments of a standards checklist for the responsible surgeon, the anesthesiologist and nurse circulating. results: there were 3680 operations programmed with implementation of the checklist in 100 %. there were 2116 failures (57.5%): of them attributable to the human factor 98,12% and technicals only 0.18%. in the preoperative, the most common failure was the lack of informed consent; in the intraoperative, lack of foresight critical events and in the immediate postoperative period, lack of operative protocols and discrepancy in the counting of gauze. . conclusion: the incidence of error in surgery needs to be reduced by a guidelines provided by the checklist, rapid and simple procedure which requires the commitment of the surgical team acting.