Checklists save lives

[dr_tectonic]

Signal-boost for my friends in health care -- or anyone interested in managing complexity.

The Checklist (New Yorker article by Atul Gawande)

[hat-tip to dpolicar]

Comments

[walrusjester.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Fascinating article; thanks for tossing it out there. I was intrigued by one aspect of the checklist system - the fact that administration put its authority behind nurses, authorizing them to stop doctors who weren't following procedure. As a professional knowledgeable subordinate, I think more organizations would benefit by formally and publicly giving knowledgeable subordinates some ability to stop people above them from making bad decisions.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

One nit-pick: "nerve-racking."

Nerve-wracking.

In the New Yorker, no less.

Good article. Good points. And yes checklists work— just as simpler procedures benefit from being done the same way every time. And it's bizarrely difficult to convince people of that.