Can Checklists Minimize Legal Liability and Improve the Quality of Patient Care?

Healthcare in the United States is a complex process delivered in a variety of patient care settings that range from an emergency department to a long term care facility. The information necessary to provide this care is ideally based on evidenced based practice guidelines that are then translated into national standards of care. Of late, the legal community is increasingly looking to see if providers, including nurse practitioners, are documenting evidence-based care in the medical records of their patients. One such way to ensure universal application and documentation of appropriate care is through the use of evidence-based or best practice checklists to point out key aspects of care required for a given patient presentation. Over time, many experts are hopeful that access to appropriate patient care guidelines will be made more available with the advent and proliferation of computerized patient information management systems.