The Checklist Manifesto / Atul Gawande - 4****

[Book Concierge]

The Checklist Manifesto – Atul Gawande
Book on CD read by John Bedford Lloyd
4****

Subtitle: How to Get Things Right

Gawande became well-known for his original book of essays Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science , in which he outlined some of the difficulties faced by modern-day surgeons despite the very best training and equipment. He wrote it while still a resident in training, and followed it up a few years later with Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance where he described more of his observations and shared his thoughts and questions for continued improvement. THIS book is his third.

He explains how a tool used in many industries to ensure that complex procedures are carried out in a “best practices” way consistently might be (and has been) applied to the complexities of modern medicine. What is this tool? A checklist.

I loved his earlier books partly because I am a total geek about medicine. So this book was slow to get my attention because he wrote about pilots and construction managers in some detail before getting around to applying that checklist tool to medicine. But when he began to relate the world-wide study undertaken under the auspices of the World Health Organization, I began to feel his enthusiasm for the subject, and his (and others’) excitement over the early results.

Still, for me at least, it seemed to be missing some of the “special sauce” that his earlier works (and his later work: Being Mortal ”) had. I expect that this is partly due to the fact that this book is much more clearly aimed at the medical professional, and was, therefore, less personal to me. Still, you can bet I’ll be asking my surgeon / anesthetist / nurse about their use of a checklist the next time I have to have any surgical procedure!

John Bedford Lloyd did a fine job of narrating the audiobook, although I think the book might be best appreciated in text format.




LINK to my review

[NancyJ]

Great review. I like reading about the medical field too. Some of the most interesting change management case studies come from the medical industry. I didn’t realize he wrote Being Mortal too. It makes me more interested in this book. I am a big fan of the humble checklist, especially when training people in safety sensitive jobs. Medical errors are a major cause of death in hospitals, and sometimes one tiny forgotten step can be deadly.

[Peacejanz]

What a wonderful book. Thanks for a great review. peace,, janz