CHECKLISTS FOR DOCTORS REVISITED.

CHECKLISTS FOR DOCTORS REVISITED. Late last year, I posted here on Atul Gawande’s article urging the use of checklists by hospitals to prevent infections. This article by Betsy McCaughey reports on progress that has been made. Medicare is taking the position that certain infections should never occur in hospitals: “Medicare calls certain device-related bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections and surgical infections after orthopedic and heart surgery “‘never events.'” Medicare will begin refusing reimbursement to hospitals for treatment of these infections. Beth Israel Medical Center in New York has instituted a checklist and has not had a central line bloodstream infection in the cardiac intensive care unit for over 1000 days (with savings estimated at over $1,500,000). And, as the article describes, the American tort system is beginning to target these infections.