“The Checklist Manifesto”

Surgeon, Harvard professor, and New Yorker staff writer Atul Gawande argues that mistakes can be prevented in life-or-death situations by following a simple list. In “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right,” published by Metropolitan Books, Gawande explores how clinicians might improve their practice and discovers that at the highest levels of success, there is always a checklist. “Thoughtfully written and soundly defended, this book calls for medical professionals to improve patient care by adopting a basic, common-sense approach,” writes The Washington Post. Gawanade makes a strong case that even skeptics will have a hard time ignoring. “Without adding a single piece of equipment or spending an extra dollar, all eight hospitals saw the rate of major postsurgical complications drop by 36 percent in the six months after the checklist was introduced; deaths fell by 47 percent,” writes The New York Times. And The Huffington Post says, “Gawande argues that checklists could dramatically improve that record, and he backs his claim with the kind of stories that make his books thrilling (if occasionally eww!-inducing) to read.” In an era when health reform is a buzzword, Gawande’s book could have major implications.