No matter how routine an operation is, the patients never seem to be. But with the checklist in place, we have caught unrecognized drug allergies, equipment problems, confusion about medications, mistakes on labels for biopsy specimens going to pathology. (“No, that one is from the right side. This is the one from the left side.”) We’ve made better plans and been better prepared for patients. I am not sure how many important issues would have slipped by us without the checklist and actually caused harm. We were not bereft of defenses. Our usual effort to be vigilant and attentive might have
...more
