review-checklist

name	review-checklist
description	Use when verifying that a process follows all required steps before handoff.
source	FAA Aviation Safety Checklists, WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
tags	["quality-assurance","checklist","process","error-reduction"]
deprecated	true
deprecated_by	audit-process-checklist

Review Checklist

Systematically verify every required step before signing off on a process.

Why This Is Best Practice

Adopted by: Aviation (FAA), surgery (WHO), NASA, nuclear power (NRC) — industries where step omission causes irreversible failure. Impact: WHO Surgical Safety Checklist reduced surgical complications by 36% and deaths by 47% (Haynes et al., NEJM 2009). Aviation accident rates dropped from 40+ per million flights (1950s) to under 0.2 by 2000 (NTSB longitudinal data). Why best: Human memory under time pressure is unreliable. External checklists eliminate recall failures — the primary driver of pre-checklist aviation accidents.

Sources: WHO Surgical Safety Checklist 2009, FAA Advisory Circular AC 120-21

Steps

1. List every required step in sequence before beginning.
2. Check each step immediately after performing it — not from memory.
3. Halt and resolve any step that fails before proceeding.
4. Have a second person verify critical steps independently.
5. Record the completed checklist with verifier and timestamp.

Rules

• Never check off a step not yet performed — even under time pressure.
• Keep checklists short enough to complete in under 5 minutes.
• Review the checklist annually to ensure steps remain current.

Common Mistakes

• Checking off steps from memory after completing a block.
• Using the checklist only for documentation, not real-time verification.
• Skipping it when "everything is obviously fine."

When NOT to Use

• When the process has a single step with no failure modes worth gating.
• When operating in an exploratory phase where rigid sequencing inhibits discovery.
• When the checklist has not been validated against the actual process it covers.