What the Healthcare Industry can Learn from Aviation

[mike carey]

When things went wrong on QF32 in 2010, the plane might have crashed. But it didn't for a number of reasons, including quick-thinking, teamwork and effective systems.

 

The Qantas A-380 had just taken off from Singapore on a flight to Australia when it had a catastrophic engine failure that disabled many of the aircraft's systems. The aircraft had a flight crew of three and happened to have a check captain and a trainee check captain, so three of the five were senior captains.

 

(As an aside, yesterday the results were announced of an Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation into the crash last year of a light aircraft in Melbourne in which the pilot and four passengers were killed. There had been an incorrect setting of a control, that had occurred because the pilot had failed to follow a check-list.)

 

This is an interesting 25 minute discussion on the lessons that health care could learn from the systems and flight deck dynamics that are enforced in the aviation industry. The discussion involves a medical academic and the pilot who was the captain of that Qantas flight.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/what-the-healthcare-industry-can-learn-from-aviation/10265132

[maninsoma]

Here I was expecting to see a sarcastic post about how the healthcare industry could start nickle and diming its customers after already charging them for the basic service provided. Surely in a hospital setting this is already done ($20 for a pill that costs a few pennies over-the-counter), but when I visit my doctor I pay my copay and that's it. I can just imagine being charged a fee if I wanted to have an appointment versus just waiting in line (assigned seat in advance versus getting one at the gate).