Providers get safety advice from pilots

So what can an airline pilot tell a hospital staff about how to reduce patient care errors? Plenty, it seems. A growing number of facilities, including Vanderbilt Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the University of Nebraska, are bringing in pilots to coach their teams. Health leaders there concluded that aviation safety approaches, which foster regimented communication and finely-tuned teamwork, can be transferred to a healthcare setting successfully. Provider execs hope to benefit from the experience of the aviation industry, which improved its safety practices dramatically after a series of fatal mistakes in the 1970s. The resulting principles, taught in NASA's Crew Resource Management program, include recognizing the impact of fatigue, to listening to all team members, resolving conflicts and developing contingency plans. Pilots typically charge from $7000 to $40,000 to provide such training, according to a piece in The New York Times.

To find out more about healthcare pilot training:
- read this New York Times article

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