Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande wrote The Checklist Manifesto – How to Get Things Right. He also founded Ariadne Labs which is a joint center of the Brigham and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The most widely used checklists are by airline pilots – a major reason air travel today is so safe. Gawande is probably doing more for quality improvement in medicine than anyone and his work is having an impact.
What does all that mean for us? Well, anyone concerned about safety should have a checklist. It’s reasonable to ask your hospital, anesthesiologist or surgeon if they use checklists. They should! The same applies to safety in our building. We also need personal checklists to make sure all our ducks are in a row. That said, I’d better get to work!