title: The role of electronic checklists - case study on MRI-safety.
abstract: Checklists can be used to improve and standardize safety critical processes and their communication. The introduction of potentially harmful medical technology and equipment has created additional requirements for the safe delivery of health care. We have studied the implementation of an electronic checklist to ensure the safety of patients scheduled for Magnetic Resonance Imaging examinations. Through a combination of observations and semi-structured interviews we investigated how health care workers in a Norwegian University hospital dealt with variations in checklist compliance, missing and lack of information. The checklist provided different functionality for the different users, ranging from a memory/attention support to a standardized form of communication on safety matters. However, the rigidity afforded by the electronic implementation, showed some serious drawbacks over the prior, simpler, paper-based versions.
authors.affiliation: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dep. Computer and Information Science, Trondheim, Norway. andreala@idi.ntnu.no
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Landmark
authors.forename: May-Britt
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Selnes
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Svensli
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Solum
authors.forename: Berit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brattheim
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist / Q000379:methods*; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods*; D061214:Patient Safety; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*