Articles: checklist.
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Transition from film-screen to digital radiography requires changes in radiographic technique and workflow processes to ensure that the minimum radiation exposure is used while maintaining diagnostic image quality. Checklists have been demonstrated to be useful tools for decreasing errors and improving safety in several areas, including commercial aviation and surgical procedures. ⋯ The checklist and its accompanying implementation manual and practice quality improvement project are open source and downloadable at www.imagegently.org. The authors describe the process of developing and testing the checklist and offer suggestions for using the checklist to minimize radiation exposure to children during radiography.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2013
ReviewPrompting physicians to address a daily checklist for antibiotics: do we need a co-pilot in the ICU?
Failed opportunities to reduce morbidity and mortality occur when evidence-based therapies are not fully implemented in clinical practice. We reviewed the recent literature on implementation strategies in the intensive care unit, with particular attention to antibiotic therapy. ⋯ Newer implementation strategies focused on real-time, point-of-care interventions have been associated with greater impact. The most common of these new interventions is use of checklists. Greater checklist use has led to the realization that a prompting or forcing function is required for optimal benefit.
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The anesthesiology field has recently embraced the use of checklists to obviate the need for long-term memory, improve safety, and achieve goals and tasks. These checklists serve to increase safety, improve consumer satisfaction, and reduce mortality and morbidity. Spinal surgery with the patient lying prone is associated with complex morbidities when there is inattention to proper positioning technique. ⋯ The purpose of this research project was to examine the use of a checklist for nurse anesthetists who provide care for patients undergoing spinal surgery. The checklist addressed specific positioning needs as a means of decreasing mortality and morbidity. It is theorized that the use of a checklist will serve as a systematic aid to memory and enable the anesthetist to adhere to proper positioning techniques in this patient population and thereby improve outcomes.