| Description |
The American healthcare system is constantly on the search for ways to improve. There are many ways to achieve this, be it through improving care or decreasing the financial burden placed on patients. One method that has received increased attention in recent years is the implementation of checklists. Since their introduction to airline pilots nearly 90 years ago, checklists have become a proven method of improving quality when properly implemented. Recent years have seen an increase in the use of checklists specifically in healthcare situations. A landmark study kicked this interest off by studying the addition of checklists into routine operations within several Michigan hospitals. The results showed a dramatic increase in quality through checklists and demonstrated the viability of standardizing operations in healthcare. This is not to suggest that it's as easy as using a checklist to increase the quality of a process. There are many barriers that complicate implementation- a lack of established best practices, and provider buy-in are two of the foremost threats to this process. However, there is somewhat of an established framework laid out to maximize checklist effectiveness- A process must be mapped, best practices must be established, and contingencies must be accounted for. If this is all accomplished, there is data to suggest that checklists can improve process quality in healthcare. Once implemented, there needs to be some way to track how checklists can affect the patient experience. The University of Utah developed a Value Based Equation that allows administrators to quantify the impact to patients of adding checklists in healthcare processes. This can serve to identify exactly which aspects of treatment are affected through the process, and evaluate their overall change. The proliferation of checklists in healthcare will enable healthcare workers to positively affect each variable of this equation, thus improving patients' value nationwide. |
