wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Here's a link to the New Yorker Article where Atul Gawande talks about the list:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_gawande

And here's a short overview of the list (i think) from the blog Peter Levin’s Rethinking Markets:

The main proponent of checklists in ICU care is Peter Pronovost, and the article details a single arena of innovation, the IV line. The checklist here consists of: “(1) wash their hands with soap, (2) clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic, (3) put sterile drapes over the entire patient, (4) wear a sterile mask, hat, gown, and gloves, and (5) put a sterile dressing over the catheter site once the line is in. Check, check, check, check, check.” This has two effects: 1) it helps with memory recall; and 2) it provides a minimum set of standards in a complex process."

Thank you for this enlightening and shocking program.

It was said we could find the Checklist by googling "keystone initiative checklist".

I tried that, but it doesn't work

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GZHZ_enUS244US245&q=keystone+initiative+checklist

Any suggestions?

It begs the question: why is this checklist is so hard to find?

Earth to Doctors.. come on guys!! You're supposed to be so smart, but where is the common sense.

Folks, I was just listening to Leonard Lopate's excellent interview with Atul Gawande about the Keystone Initiative Checklist. In answer to a question about how to get hold of this checklist, they referred listeners to Google. Well, I Googled the Keystone Initiative + checklist in many different permutations and cannot find a link to the *actual* checklist! I'm sure it's there, but it's not too easy to find. Help, please!

Brett Harvey
Brooklyn, NY

My husband is an private pilot. He ALWAYS uses his printed checklist before he starts a flight. Recently, he had surgery at a major university hospital. Before his surgery, he asked some of the nurses if they used a checklist. They all claimed they did not need one. This was soon after that article about checklists and hand-washing can hugely affect infections and mistakes. Kind of scary.

I have noticed on a number of occasions that some doctors do not tend to use the web to consult and share the latest research, especially as it concerns unusual or rare conditions. Is this arrogance or overwork on their parts? I would assume that they would want to do their best for the patient.

The various health care 'reform' initiatives being offered up in this election year all seem to be plans for mandating that individauls buy insurance policies (e.g. not actually providing or ensuring medical care).

Given the problems you have described with having health care controlled by the financial sector (insurance companies), how does criminalizing the non-insured equate to 'health care'?

Infections? I had read that to lower the infection rate in emergency rooms...that something called intraoseous is being used and not IV's. What are they referring to?

I'm male and my primary care doctor is female. We're both single and about the same age, in our 40s. It was advertised at the clinic where I go of her outside hobbies, etc, and we seem to get along very well and have the same interests. If I ask her out, even socially as a friend, should I offer to go to a different doctor or clinic? Or would it be unethical for her to go out with a former patient? The only issue for me is that although she's attractive and pleasant, she's also a good doctor.