According to an article on Medical News Today, several children’s’ hospitals are implementing safety procedures used by the aviation industry to reduce errors in their hospitals.
LifeWings is the largest provider of CRM (Crew Resource Management) based systems in the United States. Life Wings is implementing the program at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, TN.
CRM is used in the aviation industry to teach new pilots, flight attendants and mechanics the importance of working as a team to ensure safety and reduce errors. The President of LifeWings, Captain Stephen Harden is quoted “The medical teams we work with are in many respects just like the flight crews we’ve worked with in aviation. They provide incredibly good individual care. But unlike aviation, sometimes the system of care in hospitals makes it difficult to coordinate and collaborate their efforts…And because children can’t crosscheck what their doctor or nurse is doing, it is critically important to have a proven safety system in place to provide this function for them.”
Way to go Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital! We hope that more hospitals will follow your lead to ensure the safety of their patients.