Kirk,
Did you read:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_gawande

Here is a quote-
"Line infections are so common that they are considered a routine
complication. I.C.U.s put five million lines into patients each year,
and national statistics show that, after ten days, four per cent of
those lines become infected. Line infections occur in eighty thousand
people a year in the United States, and are fatal between five and
twenty-eight per cent of the time, depending on how sick one is at the
start."

OK, now here are the steps-
(1) wash hands with soap,
(2) clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic,
(3) put sterile drapes over the entire patient,
(4) wear a sterile mask, hat, gown, and gloves, and
(5) put a sterile dressing over the catheter site once the line is in.

Clearly these are simple, easy to remember things that don't need a
checklist. But they started using a checklist anyway-

"the ten-day line-infection rate went from eleven per cent to zero. So
they followed patients for fifteen more months. Only two line
infections occurred during the entire period. They calculated that, in
this one hospital, the checklist had prevented forty-three infections
and eight deaths, and saved two million dollars in costs."

Agree with most of your comments, BTW, but checklists are sometimes
useful for even the simple things.

Brian

Sorry, that's not a checklist, that a procedure.

And reading some of the "checklists" I see on RAS, they are also more
"procedures" instead of checklists.

WUFSTALL is getting awfully close to a procedure for me.

Kirk
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