The New York Times bestselling author of Being Mortal and Complications reveals the surprising
power of the ordinary checklist. We live in a world of great and increasing complexity where
even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training
ever more advanced technologies-neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn
acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of
techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force checklists have
enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are
being adopted in hospitals around the world helping doctors and nurses respond to everything
from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery a simple
ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third. In riveting stories
Gawande takes us from Austria where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had
spent half an hour underwater to Michigan where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care
units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists
actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist
revolution into fields well beyond medicine from disaster response to investment banking
skyscraper construction and businesses of all kinds. An intellectual adventure in which lives
are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference The Checklist Manifesto
is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.
