Atul Gawande on why heroes use checklists « Jon Udell

22nd March 2010 16:22:46 by Richard Bennett

http://blog.jonudell.net/2010/03/04/atul-gawande-on-why-heroes-use-checklists/

"The biggest roadblock is pushback from highly-trained experts who are offended by the idea. After 8 years of medical school, and in a regime that already demands vast amounts of paperwork, why should a doctor have to check off basic items on a list? Because we are fallible in the face of complexity, Gawande says, and because checklists work. Although he led research in this area he was skeptical about adopting checklists in his own operating rooms. But when he did, he made two critical discoveries. First, well-made checklists are easy to use. Second, they almost always caught errors."