Background on medical checklists saving lives (and yet meeting up with resistance at times from medical practitioners) in this important New Yorker piece by surgeon/writer Atul Gawande:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

Gawande now has a book out about checklists called "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right" that expands on this and also describes the usefulness of checklists in other areas: http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0805091742 (If the topic interests you, btw, Amazon apparently is selling this $24.50 hardcover book for only $10).