International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care
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Int J Qual Health Care · Feb 2008
ReviewDevelopment of medical checklists for improved quality of patient care.
Checklists are used in both medical and non-medical industries as cognitive aids to guide users through accurate task completion. Their development requires a systematic and comprehensive approach, particularly when implemented in high intensity fields such as medicine. ⋯ Despite currently available evidence, a highly effective, standardized methodology for the development and design of medical-specific checklists has not previously been developed and validated, which has likely contributed to their inconsistent use in several key fields of medicine, despite evidence of their fundamental role in error management.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Feb 2008
Trends in socioeconomic disparities in health care quality in four countries.
To provide a targeted portrait of socioeconomic disparities in health care quality in four countries and how those disparities have changed over time. ⋯ The fact that disparities in a variety of indicators exist in four very different health systems underscores the importance of factors common to the four systems or factors outside the health system. Some successful strategies for reducing disparities could potentially be learned from the few examples of success in these countries.