A Checklist for Every Camper
Checklists reduce errors. That’s why checklists, long used in the airline industry, have been adopted in health care to improve safety. Simple checklists like the WHO Safe Surgery checklist reduce the risk of skipping an important step.
We’ve compiled a quality expert-approved checklist of camping must haves for hiking, biking, climbing, rafting, base camping, canyoneering, and yes, even glamping.
Checklists are a Powerful Tool
In his thought-provoking book, The Checklist Manifesto, Dr. Atul Gawande argues for using checklists in the delivery of health care as well as in other enterprises. What kinds of checklists can be helpful? Justin Fox, former editor of Harvard Business Review, describes the different sorts of checklists:
- Task List: A step by step guide to activities which must be followed in a certain order. Most helpful for well-defined activities that have a lot of detail—too much for one person to remember. Examples: setting up a tent, cooking, changing your flat tire.
- Coordination List: Best for extremely complicated tasks that take a group. The coordination list forces the individuals to check in on a regular basis. Example: Planning the big family reunion.
- Discipline List: A list of procedures that keeps you from making bad decisions in times of stress. Example: the serenity prayer needed during and after a long family holiday.
- To-Do List: A personal list that is revised on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Example: all the things you need (want, hope, then give up getting) done before my vacation starts.
Originally published June 2017. Article has been updated to reflect current information.
Cindy Spangler
Utah's value engineers turn any real-world event into a cause for improvement. Recently, senior value engineer Will McNett and a friend were swept up in an avalanche, traveling 50 yards down the southeast face of Albright Peak in Grand Teton National Park. What many would consider terrifying, Will considered a cause for observation, investigation, analysis, and improvement.
Healthcare isn’t the only industry experiencing whiplash-inducing change. Think about the significant change in the way we travel. We used to hear about a place or a particular hotel from a travel agent or friend, or gasp—the phone book. Today, the number of sites offering advice, recommendations and resources is astounding. In this post, we’re highlighting a few tried and true resources that leverage big data to make travel easier.
Medical errors often occur due to system failure, not human failure. Hospitalist Kencee Graves helps explain why we need to evaluate medical error from a system standpoint.
