The notes a doctor takes during a visit with a patient can be crucial to that person's care and overall level of treatment. These notes can help a doctor review a patient's medical condition, form a diagnosis and share information with others who may participate in that person's care. For some time, the question has been whether patients should, or would even want to, review what their physicians write in those notes.

Doctors and hospitals are reducing errors and saving lives with an occupational concept fast-food restaurants have long used: checklists. Surgical teams started creating standardized lists of questions to use in operating theaters. In turn, patients and their families are now taking their own checklists to the hospital.