Training operating room staff in teamwork, communication and safety strategies is associated with lower rates of surgical mortality.
That was the conclusion of a new study published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association that assessed rates of surgical deaths following hospitals' implementation of a training program modeled after practices from the aviation industry.
For the study, researchers analyzed patient data from 108 Veterans Health Administration hospitals. In 2006, following a successful pilot project, the VHA implemented a national team-training program for operating room personnel in all of its hospitals. The program includes a two-month planning and preparation period, a daylong educational conference and one year of quarterly follow-up interviews.
“Using the crew resource management theory from aviation adapted for healthcare, clinicians were trained to work as a team; challenge each other when they identify safety risks; conduct checklist-guided preoperative briefings and postoperative debriefings; and implement other communication strategies such as recognizing red flags, rules of conduct for communication, stepping back to reassess a situation, and how to conduct effective communication between clinicians during care transitions,” the authors said in the study.
Risk-adjusted mortality rates fell 18% in facilities that had received the training, compared with a 7% drop in nontrained facilities, according to the study.
