Safe Surgery Saves Lives

The safest care. Everywhere.

Our commitment to safety compelled us to initiate an Operation Smile “mission model” that ensures we can deliver the safest, most exemplary surgical practices possible, no matter where they take place.

As our organization and global chapters have grown, so has the adoption of safe practices for delivering care in every region — to the benefit of patients and the in-country health care system.

• Many Operation Smile foundations are recruiting volunteer health care workers who are credentialed in our standards of excellence in cleft care.

• Operation Smile’s Regional Medical Officers (RMOs) work with in-country medical councils to lead medical quality assurance matters, equipment needs, site preparation, staffing and credentialing — in an effort to bring all local regions up to compliance with our Global Standards of Care.

• Operation Smile is one of 200 organizations, and the only cleft organization, supporting the World Health Organization’s Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative, which includes the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. We wholeheartedly embrace the goal of this initiative — to improve the safety of surgical care throughout the world by defining and following a core set of safety standards that can be applied globally — even in the developing world.