Medical Physics Practice Guideline 4.a: Development, implementation, use and maintenance of safety checklists-AEB05B2C

The overall field of medicine is characterized by highly complex, intense, and dynamic processes, where a multidisciplinary team works together using sophisticated imaging, planning, and delivery systems to provide efficient, accurate, and safe patient treatment. As a result of such characteristics, the practice of medicine is susceptible to errors in judgment, errors in communication, lack of compliance with standard operating procedures, as well as workflow inefficiencies. Other complex environments outside medicine, such as aviation1 and product manufacturing, have successfully used simple tools to aid in reducing human errors. One of these tools is Checklists. Checklists have been extensively validated in nonmedical and medical fields for many years, and have proven to be an effective tool in error management and a key instrument in reducing the risk of costly mistakes and improving overall outcomes.