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>the hardest working, highest average IQ professionals are slow to adopt something that would help them save their patient's lives? This is already the case wi

>the hardest working, highest average IQ professionals are slow to adopt something that would help them save their patient's lives? This is already the case with checklists, which are proven to save lives but resisted by many doctors: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090554-not-all-surgeons-follow-checklists-that-prevent-bad-mistakes/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090554-not-all-surgeon... . In my limited experience with doctors a non-insignificant proportion seem to care more about their own ego than saving lives (the kind of people who would bring up their own IQ in a discussion). Medical error is apparently the third largest cause of death in the US (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading...), and surgical checklists have been shown to reduce error rates by 40%: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/jan/14/health https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/jan/14/health. In any other profession it would be completely unacceptable to refuse to use a technique like checklists on the grounds that "I don't make silly mistakes"; imagine if an engineer working on safety-critical equipment said "My code doesn't need any testing because I don't make mistakes".

carlmr 7y ago
I use checklists extensively, however I'm wondering if mandatory checklists would have the same effect. I have checklists for holiday packing with different sub checklists for beach, ski, etc vacation. At work there are checklists for code review that I personally find don't help. Why? I didn't make that checklist myself. It's a checklist basically containing every mistake anyone ever made that could have or should have been caught in review. This leads to a checklist of hundreds of Well-d'uhs, because a lot of people make many silly mistakes. I have a personal review checklist with the things I often forget. I think checklists only work if they're full of pertinent information, and for many professions I think that depends on the person using the checklist and whether they're motivated to use it or obliged to.
- logicchains 7y ago
  I worked at a company that used mandatory checklists for some operational roles, they definitely cut down on the number of mistakes (at least the mistakes the checklist was crafted to address). It made people more accountable: whereas previously a certain mistake might be human error (unavoidable), if it still happened after the checklist then either somebody didn't fill out the checklist (and could be punished for negligence) or lied by checking a box on checklist without actually doing the thing (and could be severely punished for dishonesty). This motivated people to thoroughly check the things.
- bbatha 7y ago
  The guardian article linked by the parent says the check list used was two minutes and asked basic questions like “patient has confirmed procedure being performed today”.

carlmr 7y ago

I use checklists extensively, however I'm wondering if mandatory checklists would have the same effect. I have checklists for holiday packing with different sub checklists for beach, ski, etc vacation. At work there are checklists for code review that I personally find don't help. Why? I didn't make that checklist myself. It's a checklist basically containing every mistake anyone ever made that could have or should have been caught in review. This leads to a checklist of hundreds of Well-d'uhs, because a lot of people make many silly mistakes. I have a personal review checklist with the things I often forget. I think checklists only work if they're full of pertinent information, and for many professions I think that depends on the person using the checklist and whether they're motivated to use it or obliged to.

logicchains 7y ago
I worked at a company that used mandatory checklists for some operational roles, they definitely cut down on the number of mistakes (at least the mistakes the checklist was crafted to address). It made people more accountable: whereas previously a certain mistake might be human error (unavoidable), if it still happened after the checklist then either somebody didn't fill out the checklist (and could be punished for negligence) or lied by checking a box on checklist without actually doing the thing (and could be severely punished for dishonesty). This motivated people to thoroughly check the things.
bbatha 7y ago
The guardian article linked by the parent says the check list used was two minutes and asked basic questions like “patient has confirmed procedure being performed today”.