Yes - we all 'hate' checklists and all that infuriating 'box-ticking' that goes along with it... But are we in danger of overlooking the power and usefulness of a good checklist that has been well researched?
Listening to the radio yesterday morning (BBC Radio 4) I heard a piece about how the airline industry & the World Health Organisation have been working with the NHS to deploy the 'Surgical Safety Checklist'. The main principle of this seems to be about team work and making sure that, at the start of an operation, everyone knows what they are doing.
To quote a well known meerkat - "simples!"
There are the other stories about these developments here, here and here. And there is more information about the whole approach to create "The Productive Operating Theatre" on the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement here.
But back to checklists... how many other services could be improved for want of a good checklist? Whenever I talk about 'knowledge management' (which is often over complicated beyond belief) I talk about the value of a simple checklist as being the embodiment of practical knowledge.
What checklists do you work with... and what new ones would help?
Original blog: http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/
Yes, there is loads of evidence that a simple checklist can structure an activity wonderfully, I am a big fan.http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_gawandeLoads there, and a really interesting thing here showing how blinkered and bureacratic organisations can be.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30gawande.html
ReplyDeleteMark - that is an inspiring story in the New Yorker! Thank you. I think the quote "If a new drug were as effective at saving lives as Peter Pronovost’s checklist, there would be a nationwide marketing campaign urging doctors to use it." is particularly illuminating. This says a great deal about how medical practice is skewed by where the research moneys go. The chances are that acupuncture is really effective but the number of controlled trials are limited. Perhaps because there are not the mega profits to be made...I will add your links to my original blog posts - thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe checklist only externalize what we do imternally. It allows others in the groups to see the steps and reinforce the.In many ways, it is more bureaucratic but it appears less so because it never existeddBefore in the op rooms.We do this internally, in the am we check the front door is closed and we check our mirrors before we set off in the am.Putting it on paper will not improve it, but it would allow others to follow and reinforce.One must remember that pilots have lots of checklists but most crashes occur because of pilot error or something that was not on the checklist.Just some thought, time to check that off my list
ReplyDeletelawrence, perhaps lots of aircraft accidents used to happen that have now been error trapped by the checklists, and what remains is not suitable for a checklist. The fact that no accidents occur that were on the checklist show that they work?
ReplyDeleteAlways been a checklist fan. I've got a book on "Checklist Management" tucked away at home somewhere. Must dig it out. Probably on a shelf in the attic with the Tom Peters stuff.Checklists can be unpopular with people who think there's nothing wrong with their memory - or not yet, at least. But that's not the point. Drawing up a checklist is a very good analytical tool for not only questioning what needs to be done, but in what order, by whom, etc.I think the checklist is often seen as the work equivalent of the shopping list, which is a pity. Pilots use checklists to ensure not only that everything gets done, but that it gets done in the right order. They're a basic tool of quality management systems. Pity we tend to think we "did" them (TQM systems) about 20 years ago!
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