Prompting Physicians to Address a Daily Checklist and Process of Care and Clinical Outcomes A Single-Site Study

Rationale: Checklists may reduce errors of omission for critically ill patients. Objectives: To determine whether prompting to use a checklist improves process of care and clinical outcomes. Methods:We conducted a cohort study in themedical intensive care unit (MICU) of a tertiary care university hospital. Patients admitted to either of two independent MICU teams were included. Interven-tion teamphysicianswere prompted to address six parameters from a daily rounding checklist if overlooked during morning work rounds. The second team (control) used the identical checklist with-out prompting. Measurements andMain Results: One hundred and forty prompted group patients were comparedwith 125 control and 1,283 preinter-vention patients. Compared with control, prompting increasedme-dian ventilator-free duration, decreased empirical antibiotic an