Product Description
“This book is a tour de force, and no one but John Nance could have written it. He, alone, masters in one mind the fields of aviation, health care safety, medical malpractice law, organizational sociology, media communication, and, as if that were not enough, the art of fine writing. Only he could have made sophisticated, scientifically disciplined instruction about the nature and roots of safety into a page-turner. Medical care has a ton yet to learn from the decad… More >>
Why Hospitals Should Fly: The Ultimate Flight Plan to Patient Safety and Quality Care
#1 by C. Newman on August 24th, 2010
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I just finished this book today and highly recommend it to anyone interested in knowing more about medicine, hospitals, and patient care. Doctors have been under fire from many different groups to perform the impossible — save everyone and do it cheaply. Doctors, HMO’s, lawyers, patients, and government each have a hand in the state of our health care system. This book outlines a sound approach to helping medicine achieve a better safety record and ultimately, better patient outcomes. This is a must read for any medical professional or interested party and I would love to see St. Michaels in my neighborhood. Well done — and long overdue. Aviation safety has many things to teach us — can we implement these ideas? Or maybe the question is, “Can we afford not to?”
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Michael Lieber on August 24th, 2010
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I have just recently left my long term practice in pulmonary and critical care medicine to start up and head an intensivist program (full time critical care physicians available in an ICU) in a hospital in California. I know medicine primarily from the inpatient and hospital view since that was the basis of my practice, and I have been until now a hospital medical director, and a critical care director. In the last few years I have taken an MBA in Healthcare and I am grounded in business operational views.
I preparing for this program I have read widely in the quality literature. I came across this book on Amazon. The title was intriguing as I had always admired the precision and professionalism of flight crews and wondered why Hospital medicine couldn’t be similar. The aviation approach to quality is often mentioned in the literature, and physicians are frequently demoralized in lectures which point out the difference between our 2 sigma track record and aviation’s 6 sigma. The best run show in the hospital has been with Anesthesia who picked up the ball over 10 years ago and have shown a dramatic improvement in quality.
I found the beginning of the book to be a little odd with the type of story-telling the author uses to get his information across. By chapter 3, however, I was well into it and found that the book reads easily. The author is able to add emotional content to his story, both to underscore his points and, I believe, to aid in recollection. His medical and aviation stories are excellent and carry the book forward. I even enjoyed his Star Trek allusions.
I was particularly impressed with his description of the workings of the idealized ICU and the OR. His understanding of physician behavior and motivations is outstanding. He also understands nurses and CEO’s.
His ICU picture is similar to my vision of a great ICU, but his is more clearly thought out. I feel that his discussion has helped my clarify my thinking regarding staff interaction. I particularly appreciated his description of the little red towel worn by nurses when they are handling medications, a sign to let others know that they should not be distracted during their performance of what needs to be understood as a dangerous duty which needs their full attention. Discussions of the Swiss cheese method of quality and issues of normalized deviance are also excellent.
I found his discussion of revamping nursing functions on the floors a bit utopian, but that I admit is beyond my competency.
I very highly recommend this book for all professionals and administrators involved in hospital care. My copy will be on the ICU nurse administrator’s desk in the morning.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Benit L. Price on August 24th, 2010
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The best book I hve ever read, fiction or nonfiction. It makes you want to ask your hospital CEO, “have you read this book” and why aren’t we doing it yet.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by G. Jensen on August 24th, 2010
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I wanted to take a moment to reflect that this book “Why hospitals should fly”, along with another “Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility: Why Nurses Eat Their Young and Each Other” are perhaps the key tools aside from the human factor approach, that have stirred enthusiasm and created impetus for our organization to change its ways. We as a hospital have suffered from errors in the past, and what hospital hasn’t. However with a wonderful week of seminars and guidance from the authors, we are reaching out to our employees to empower them to foster the changes necessary to bring an end to errors due to communication, increase teamwork, espirit de corps and generally allow the organization to learn. Thanks to John and Kathleen……….Brilliant…..
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Deke on August 24th, 2010
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As many of you know, hospitals and healthcare in general seem to always use the excuse that the entire field is so different, unique, complex and special that it cannot learn or apply lessons and methods from other industries! Poppy cock! Nance makes the case clear with a perfect example of aerospace as a model for safety and communication. Reading this book caused me to imagine other fields and lessons for healthcare. For example, how about logistics experts from auto manufacturing plants who could teach hospitals how to better manage supplies and keep waste down? How about shipping/receiving (UPS, Fedex…) as models for scheduling and tracking? How about ANY successful company in customer service and making people feel welcome, let alone trusting?
I have the impression this book is not widely read. It’s too bad. It is a quick read, the lessons and ideas are crystal clear.
Rating: 5 / 5