Beyond the Checklist: What Else Health Care Can Learn from Aviation Teamwork and Safety

by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Foreword), Suzanne Gordon, Patrick Mendenhall

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, Beyond the Checklist 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. The coauthors 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Medicine, Nursing

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2012

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapter 10 should be required reading for every health care provider and student.

[Wendibourne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. I am not in the healthcare industry OR the airline industry, but read the book because a friend was reading it and was so impressed. I figured, "what the heck... I'll see if I can understand what these folks are talking about!"

I was pleased to find that Beyond the Checklist is written in a style that is very easy for the layman to understand. The descriptions of incidents from both the healthcare and airline industries had me on the edge of my seat. The conclusions drawn from these stories make total sense. The next time I go into a hospital, if given the choice, I will look for one who is forward-thinking enough to employ some of the principles described in this book. I sincerely hope that folks in the healthcare industry - especially hospital administrators - read and put into action the thoughts put forth in this book.

The book made me feel very safe on an airplane, and NOT very safe in a hospital!

[Kbeckermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read this cover-to-cover but really focussed on the second half and how this applies to health care. It really begs the question, why do we, the users of the system, continue to put up with a system where patients are hurt and die because health care providers don't work as teams. They might say they do, but they don't.

[Elizabeth Speakman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, really shows the similarity between health care and aviation