A good idea in some respects but I would be concerned about the checklist mentality taking us further down the road of a medical dictatorship. What I mean is that, currently, the CDC and AMA have huge influence over treatments recommended by doctors. You say that this is good but I believe it takes a lot of the thought and discernment away from the doctors and forces them into a formulaic mindset. Notice the vaccine debate. Any doctor that steps out of the norm and questions, merely questions, the validity of the CDC's claims of absolute safety and necessity is immediately ostracized from the community of 'sane' doctors. No matter what side of the issue you're on, I can't imagine how stifling free thought and critical questioning is a good idea.

All this to say, yes, a checklist for common procedures in hospitals can be very beneficial, but medicine and people can never be explained by a formula that works every time and we need to remember to let the doctors think on their own.

As long as the checklists are reviewed regularly and improvements can be quickly communicated. I agree to Joel that if you are not careful, the checklist becomes the ultimate, rather than the aim which is patient care (or in my world, customer service). We are there for the patient/customer not the checklist. Remember who is serving who...