Crew resource management improved perception of patient safety in the operating room.
To improve safety in the operating theater, a company of aviation pilots was employed to guide implementation of preprocedural briefings. A 5-point Likert scale survey that assessed the attitudes of operating room personnel toward patient safety was distributed before and 6 months following implementation of the briefings. Using Mann-Whitney analysis, the survey showed a significant (P < .05) improvement in 2 questions (of 13) involving reporting error and 2 questions (of 11) involving patient safety climate. When analyzed by occupation, there were no significant changes for faculty physicians; for resident physicians, there was a significant improvement in 1 question (of 13) regarding error reporting. For nurses, there were significant improvements in 3 questions (of 4) involving teamwork, 1 question (of 13) involving reporting error, and 3 questions (of 11) regarding patient safety climate. These results suggest that aviation-based crew resource management initiatives lead to an improved perception of patient safety, which was largely demonstrated by nursing personnel.
Gore
Dennis C
DC
Department of Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555, USA. dcgore@utmb.edu
Powell
Jennifer M
JM
Baer
Jennifer G
JG
Sexton
Karen H
KH
Richardson
C Joan
CJ
Marshall
David R
DR
Chinkes
David L
DL
Townsend
Courtney M
CM
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001359:Aviation; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009873:Operating Rooms / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D017751:Safety Management; D018581:Technology Transfer