Leading healthcare quality agencies such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) have advocated Crew Resource Management (CRM) for healthcare facilities to improve patient safety.
CRM is an aviation-based team training model intended to "make teams of experts into expert teams”. CRM is credited with reductions in aviation mishaps and can improve patient safety in healthcare.
Working with Lifewings, a commercial training partner, UCSD deployed the CRM program in 2007 focused on perioperative services. After a half-day CRM skills course, selected team members developed Hardwired Safety Tools (HST) during a 3-day workshop to improve communication and safety during surgical procedures. These tools were created (i.e. checklists, standard procedures and communication protocols) to allow perioperative physicians and staff to utilize the CRM skills learned during the course.
This 5:38 min. “UCSD Department of Surgery LifeWings CRM Project: Safety Tools for Highly Reliable Surgical Teams (HRST)” has an introduction by Dr Mark Talamini, Chair of the UCSD Department of Surgery and shows four HST tools currently used in UCSD operating rooms:
CRM will continue to be developed and adopted by UCSD for procedurally based departments.