Checklists are used across clinical areas. Following the publication of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist in 2009, other organizations developed their own checklists or adapted the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist for local settings. The authors analyzed 24 checklists used in 18 Swiss hospitals, identified major differences between study checklists and reference checklists and provided recommendations for future research regarding the effectiveness of surgical safety checklists.