Making a list, checking it twice

Wrong-side, wrong-patient and wrong-procedure events aren't as rare as most patients think. Thankfully, most are minor -- putting local anesthetic into the wrong finger or wrong eye, for example -- but still it's unsettling. 

Florida authorities wrote a "pause rule" requiring that before doing a procedure the team members stop to double-check the patient's name, consent form, etc. Now a prominent physician-writer, Atul Gawande, says what works even better is a checklist. It's the same idea that has made airline travel so safe.

PBS News Hour on Monday night showed how it works. Here's the video.

--Carol Gentry, Editor, can be reached at 727-410-3266 or by e-mail.