Beyond the Checklist has been reviewed as a book that “has the potential to revolutionize the structure of the healthcare system”. Watch this video highlight below to gain a better understanding about the opportunity that exists for healthcare providers to learn from the aviation industry.  All of which will have direct implications for the medical simulation community!

About “Beyond The Checklist: What Else Can Healthcare Learn From Aviation Teamwork and Safety”:

The U.S. healthcare system is now spending many millions of dollars to improve “patient safety” and “inter-professional practice.” Nevertheless, an estimated 100,000 patients still succumb to preventable medical errors or infections every year. How can health care providers reduce the terrible financial and human toll of medical errors and injuries that harm rather than heal?

Beyond the Checklist argues that lives could be saved and patient care enhanced by adapting the relevant lessons of aviation safety and teamwork. In response to a series of human-error caused crashes, the airline industry developed the system of job training and information sharing known as Crew Resource Management (CRM). Under the new industry-wide system of CRM, pilots, flight attendants, and ground crews now communicate and cooperate in ways that have greatly reduced the hazards of commercial air travel.

The coauthors of this book sought out the aviation professionals who made this transformation possible. Beyond the Checklist gives us an inside look at CRM training and shows how airline staff interaction that once suffered from the same dysfunction that too often undermines real teamwork in health care today has dramatically improved. Drawing on the experience of doctors, nurses, medical educators, and administrators, this book demonstrates how CRM can be adapted, more widely and effectively, to health care delivery.

The authors provide case studies of three institutions that have successfully incorporated CRM-like principles into the fabric of their clinical culture by embracing practices that promote common patient safety knowledge and skills.They infuse this study with their own diverse experience and collaborative spirit: Patrick Mendenhall is a commercial airline pilot who teaches CRM; Suzanne Gordon is a nationally known health care journalist, training consultant, and speaker on issues related to nursing; and Bonnie Blair O’Connor is an ethnographer and medical educator who has spent more than two decades observing medical training and teamwork from the inside.  

Purchase Beyond the Checklist through Amazon today!

The Partnering to Heal website provides a free online based video learning system to simulate discussions regarding infection control communication, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Watch a demonstration of the video content below:

“This dramatization was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in consultation with subject matter experts from various disciplines and sectors, as well as patient advocates. It is intended to increase awareness of the risks of healthcare-associated infections and the opportunities for preventing such infections.”

How the training works

The training focuses on prevention of surgical site infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In addition, it includes information on basic protocols for universal precautions and isolation precautions to protect patients, visitors, and practitioners from the most common disease transmissions. The training promotes these key behaviors:

• Teamwork;
• Communication;
• Hand washing;
• Vaccination against the flu;
• Appropriate use of antibiotics; and
• Proper insertion, maintenance, and removal of devices, such as catheters and ventilators.

Users assume the identity of characters in a computer-based video-simulation and make decisions as each of those characters. Based upon their decisions, the storyline branches to different pathways and patient outcomes. The training may be used by groups in facilitated training sessions and by individuals as a self-paced learning tool. While each of the five character segments can be done in about an hour, it may be desirable to schedule more time in order to allow for extended discussion.

Check out the “Partnering to Heal” website today to learn more about this free training program!

This week I had the privilege of meeting Captain Stephen Wilkinson, co-creator of Medical Management Resources here in Las Vegas.  Stephen was interested in learning more about the Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas and I was delighted to chat with him about the similarities between the aviation and healthcare simulation industries.

A great article about Stephen and his work can be found at the Las Vegas Sun website.

Here’s a little snippet:

“When Steve Wilkinson, a retired commercial pilot, and Dr. Steve Montoya, a Las Vegas obstetrician/gynecologist, were neighbors, they realized the similarities between their industries:

• They’re both high-risk and high-stress enterprises where the lives of many are in the hands of a highly trained few.

• They both depend on teamwork and safety to protect passengers or patients.

• They are both complex, meaning success requires proper checklists, protocols and procedures to ensure no details are missed.

• In aviation, the belief was formerly that “the captain is always right” and above being challenged, and error reporting was nonexistent. A similar aura surrounds many physicians, and most hospitals woefully under-report cases of patient harm.”

I feel we have a lot to learn from the aviation industry which has been running communication and skills based learning through simulation for over 30 years now.  And while the situations are different, the resource management and communication tactics are the same.

Have you learned something from the simulation in the aviation industry?  Write to us and share with the community.