With Deprecated

---
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.