A lot of what takes place that makes it possible for us to provide the best patient care is not visible. We spend lots of time reviewing records, participating in case conferences and informal consultation to make sure that nothing gets missed in our assessment and ongoing treatment.
I spent the past weekend going over patient records for everyone in the clinic to make sure that there are no missing labs that we have been collecting appropriate vital signs.
If you’re one of her patients the results of this review will be obvious the next time we get together.
This is one of the ways that we can try to make sure that no one gets lost, all of our patients have future appointments, and that were keeping track of whether people are getting better or not.
It might seem a little “artificial” but the fact of the matter is that these kinds of systems in this kind of review is necessary to ensure that everything that needs to happen does take place.
Medicine is a good ways behind aviation in this respect. Many decades ago the idea of the brilliant aviator / pilot was deeply embedded in the culture of the airlines. However, years of meticulous review of aviation catastrophes has shown that checklists and processes for double checking that everything has been done play a vital role in ensuring good outcomes.
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