CHECKLISTS ARE HOT. IN 2 CLINICAL STUDIES, USE OF checklists was associated with substantial reductions in central line infections and surgical complications, which has led to widespread adoption of these action guides. Checklists have captured the imagination of the media and have inspired publication of a manifesto on their power in managing complexity in medicine, as well as in other aspects of modem life.A checklist, like a radiograph, provides a visual image, but the checklist image is made up of words rather than shapes or pixels and delineates intended actions rather than body parts. Like a radiograph, a checklist helps visualize something that is otherwise implicit, indeed invisible, because the actions it captures have not yet happened. Good checklists identify easily recognized, sharply defined action items. The actions identified are usually independent; that is, performing 1 action is not contingent on doing another.
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