The Greatest Checklist

In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande’s panorama of complex decision-making in modern medicine, he showcases the power of the checklist to save lives. Checklists fight the fallibility of human memory, even among the best-trained clinicians. Few people call checklists ‘innovations’ – since they sound humdrum. Prominent examples include the routine recording of vital signs in patient charts, or a checklist in the Operating Room asking things like: Do we have the right patient? The correct side of the body planned for surgery? The right antibiotics administered?