The Checklist Manifesto (Gawande)

[charlie_ego]

My sister wins. (Actually, she generally wins at life, but that's another story.)

The Checklist Manifesto is one of those books that I have not much to say about, because it is awesome. It is further a book that I think everyone ought to read, especially everyone who has any interest in health care OR complex tasks. Gawande writes very well and he

Comments

[ase]

Somehow I'm not shocked your kid sister is still getting paper printouts. When I was in high school (more than 10 years ago), one of my aunts worked in a hospital's nursing education department. During summer and winter break in high school, I did some data entry to help her catch up on putting hardcopy continuing education class rosters into the electronic database. There was enough trouble with just that, thanks.

Information in health care is also tangled up with a lot of privacy regulations (HIPAA, GINA) and preventative anti-litigation moves. That's probably not helping any moves toward transparency or easy access.

[charlie_ego]

My sister gave me that lecture as well -- it's true that HIPAA, etc. complicates matters, and I shouldn't be so flip about "what is wrong with these people??"

That being said... gah! How do they live like that? :)

[ase]

If only people would take the regulations as a challenge instead of an excuse to drag their heels! But then one remembers the lawyers in the wings.

I failed to mention, having read The Checklist Manifesto, I longed to underline key concepts and mail a copy to certain people in my life.