The Airline Safety Revolution

I will be interested to see if a similar result ever comes of moves in hospital methods inspired by aircraft results. I know a lot of hospitals have adopted such measures, and many others have not.

They include, first and foremost, mandatory checklists for surgery and other procedures; and also pre-assembled kits of all the tools and supplies needed for each procedure, and stable teams who know one another's habits and work styles.

Amazingly, none of these were common only a few years ago. Even hand-washing was a tough sell, and rules are still only fitfully obeyed in many or most places.

The fatality rate from infections picked up in intensive-care units was 4%, except in places that follow checklists, where it was brought all the way to zero.

Pilots took up checklists only slowly, and reluctantly, starting after WWII.

Probably the next place to start bringing down stupid fatalities will be in police work. Disarming most police would have the biggest immediate benefit. Police unions will fight each measure tooth and nail.

It's nice to see a news story that says "this thing is going well" for once.

Non-paywalled: https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/202104167528/the-...