Wednesday, September 19, 2007

More kudos to Ben and the team

Congratulations again for another award to Dr. Ben Sachs and his team in our OB/GYN Department. This one is national is scope, jointly from the National Quality Forum (NQF) and the Joint Commission. It is called the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. Here's a summary from StreetInsider:

This organization is being recognized for the adaptation and application of the military and commercial aviation Crew Resource Management (CRM) principles to the field of obstetrics. After the CRM curriculum was modified for clinical application, 220 staff received training to incorporate the CRM principles and concepts into their daily work processes. The result was a dramatic reduction in major adverse obstetric events, which reduced malpractice liability exposure and improved overall patient safety and the quality of obstetric care. Specifically, a 25.4 percent reduction in the Adverse Outcomes Index (a measure developed for the project) was realized, and the severity of adverse events was reduced by 13.4 percent. The success of this work has been broadly recognized and has driven or influenced similar initiatives, including those of the Harvard Risk Management Foundation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia, among others.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there any kind of online link for the CRM curriculum? I have heard of the idea of applying aviation principles to health care before, but this is the first actual implementation I've seen. Good work!

Anonymous said...

Answered my own question (google is a wonderful thing):

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Group/HelmreichLAB/Publications/pubfiles/Pub235.pdf

This is an interesting analysis of the evolution of CRM and how to address the pilots that won't accept its precepts (scary, huh?)

Perhaps BIDMC's Ob/Gyn dept could consider disseminating its modification of the curriculum for others' use....