They Work !!! Checklists and Protocols Save Lives.

From JAMA: Conclusion  Over the 4-year period from 2005 through 2008 in 9 diverse metropolitan areas, rates of invasive health care–associated MRSA infections decreased among patients with health care–associated infections that began in the community and also decreased among those with hospital-onset invasive disease.

Hospitals and credentialing organizations are finally coming down hard on health care workers who do not practice proper hand washing techniques.  Alcohol hand cleaners are literally everywhere.  

Was it easy to get to this point… NO !! Why?  No one can answer that… usual characters give the usual answers.  Sort of like listening to politicians :-(  

From TIME: Earlier this year, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that included more than 7,000 patients from eight hospitals around the world, found that implementing the use of surgical checklists reduced patient mortality rates by half, and patient injuries by nearly a third. Now, a new study published online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) adds to the evidence suggesting the protective benefit of simple checklists.

Surgical checklists as proposed by the WHO and coordinated and promoted by Atul Gawande, Berwick, etc. have been proven over and over and over reduce surgical errors and save patient’s lives.  

The literature is CLEAR. PERIOD, no questions required.

 The checklist is simple, straightforward and *easy* to implement and even easier to follow.  I’m glad the planes I fly in are operated via a checklist program… you should inquire and be sure that the hospital you choose to have your surgery at follows a checklist program too! 

End of discussion…   we have proven techniques to save lives and diminish suffering….  no excuses for not utilizing them.