Definition
A DO-CONFIRM checklist is run after the team has done the work from memory and experience, often working independently. The team then pauses to confirm aloud that each item was completed. It is the more common of the two checklist types Daniel Boorman names at Boeing, and it is the form most of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist takes.
The contrast is with READ-DO, where the team reads each step and performs it before reading the next — recipe-fashion. DO-CONFIRM trusts the expert to do the work; it verifies, with the team, that nothing got dropped.
Why it matters
How it works
In a DO-CONFIRM run, each item is phrased as a confirmation question: Antibiotic given within the last sixty minutes? The named role responds: Given or Not yet. The team waits for the action to complete before proceeding. The list is built around the expertise of the people performing the work; it does not duplicate their knowledge, only what they might miss.
Most pre-flight, pre-incision, and pre-launch lists are DO-CONFIRM. The WHO surgical checklist's three pause-points are predominantly DO-CONFIRM: the team has been working independently up to the pause, and the list verifies that the high-value, easily-missed items happened.