Low tech rules!

Still no communication whiteboard!  Oh, well - we decided to get the ball rolling with pen and paper instead.

Every weekday morning, our urologists make inpatient rounds and then do a group report with the ward nurses.  (This is also the setting for our 5-minutes quality huddle.)   One of the morning tasks is to record any complications or adverse events in a log book.  While we usually discuss management of any complications immediately at rounds, one doc is assigned to review the book from time to time and report any trends or gaps in management.

Last week, while recording in the book, one of my partners pointed out that there had been nothing recorded for 2 weeks.

"Were there no complications, or did we forget to record them?"

We weren't sure.  Hmmm - how to get surgeons to remember to do important stuff?  Checklist, anyone?

I thought our new whiteboard would be a great place to develop a morning rounds checklist (AKA standard work).  But, this is how our whiteboard's (future) spot on the wall looked this morning:

So we tried this:

Paper and felt pen.  We quickly sketched out a list of morning tasks and posted them for review tomorrow.

We'll try out the list and see if anything needs to be added.  Once we've tried it on a few occasions and with different mixes of staff present, we can turn it into something prettier and have it laminated.

That went so well (and quickly) that we took a stab at improving and standardizing the format for logging adverse events.

Take that, whiteboard!