Can checklists actually improve outcomes in a dental practice?
Yes, and the proof did not come from dentistry. A surgeon named Atul Gawande studied his own error rates, then a wider cross section of physicians, then went to the world stage and looked at what happens when systems are used in medicine. He found something profound. A simple surgical checklist, rolled out by the World Health Organization, cut the inpatient death rate by roughly fifty percent. Fifty percent, from a piece of paper. If a checklist does that in an operating room, imagine what a step-by-step method does for your emergency protocol, your office tours, your selling. We are not killing patients when we skip ours, usually. We are just killing treatment plans and harming people who needed care. Read his work, then build checklists into your critical outcomes.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.