As part of my philosophy of getting readers of The Orthodontic Notefile engaged first-hand in choosing which topics they would like to read more often on the blog, I’m holding this poll for our readers in order to have a better sense of what many of you may prefer in that regard.
I’d highly appreciate it if you would please take one minute to answer the poll below and share it online wherever you may feel is appropriate, and help The Orthodontic Notefile get better and better.
“Checklists turn out.. to be among the basic tools of the quality and productivity revolution in aviation, engineering, construction – in virtually every field combining high risk and complexity. Checklists seem lowly and simplistic, but they help fill in for the gaps in our brains and between our brains.” – Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
In a previous blog post last year, I talked about what I believe to be an important driver for clinical excellence; the use of systematized checklists. In that post, I highlighted the main idea behind checklists and how they can help in the systematic and consistent application of clinical workflows in a precise and reproducible manner, ultimately increasing clinical efficiency and improving the quality of patient care.
That post generated many requests and inquiries from colleagues around the world asking for a follow-up post with further examples of checklists. In today’s blog post, I would like to introduce a few more checklist examples I personally implement in my practice for different parts of my clinical workflow, while explaining my rationale behind them.
Continue reading “Checklists in Clinical Practice; Revisited”
“Checklists seem able to defend anyone, even the experienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized.”
― Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
What Do We Mean By A Checklist?
As per the definition of Hales et al; A checklist is an organized tool that outlines criteria of consideration for a particular process. It functions as a support resource by delineating and categorizing items as a list—a format that simplifies conceptualization and recall of information.
Continue reading “Checklists in Clinical Practice: A Simple Driver for Excellence”
“We can’t impose our will on a system. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone.”
― Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer
We all want to maximize practice efficiency, simplify management and allow for more time to focus on what’s really important. In that regard, the importance of creating well-defined systems in our orthodontic practices cannot be over-emphasized.
Continue reading ““Systems Thinking” in Orthodontic Practice”
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