Medical Administrators National Summit
Recently, Loyal Source employee “Jeff Henderson” attended the American Academy of Medical Administrators National Summit, which took place 25-28 Feb 14 in Las Vegas Nevada. Jeff served as a keynote speaker on the subject of healthcare administration and patient safety.
As a Major in the US Air Force serving as a dental technician and healthcare administrator, Jeff Henderson spent 20 years serving his country while becoming an expert in the healthcare industry. Henderson served in several clinics and hospitals, as well as in a deployed location where he served as the Patient Administration Officer at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. Throughout his career, Henderson has worked as a healthcare administrator in medical information systems, group practice management, beneficiary operations/patient administration and as an instructor at the Air Force Health Services Administration School. Henderson’s presentation draws from his years of serving in the Air Force as a healthcare administrator.
This is what the presentation was about.
After a minor incident at a surgery center, Jeff decided to put his experience as a healthcare administrator, patient safety manager and risk manager to the test. He recently read the book “Why Hospitals Should Fly” by John J. Nance that suggests that patient safety should follow the same models that the airline industry have to decrease the number of airline incidents.
An incident at Tenerife Island Airport in 1977 is the critical point in airline history that caused the airline industry to become much safer. The Crew Resource Management concept came out of the disaster, which emphasizes the importance of standard phraseology and barrier free communication in the cockpit.
Patient Safety in the US has seen many changes since the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report that brought to light the high number of preventable errors and deaths. Many models of patient safety include similar theories from the airline industry’s crew resource management model. They include huddles, briefs/debriefs and enhanced communication within the healthcare team. Both the airline and patient safety concepts include barrier free communication, where all on the team are free to speak up, no matter their skill level.
Although comparing a plane and the human body is like comparing apples to oranges, it is worth taking a look at the airline industry to see why hospitals should fly. Jeff presented data that showed how preventable errors, in healthcare, continue to increase and airline incidents have continually decreased over the past 3 decades. He emphasized that healthcare should not wait for the catastrophic event to improve the safety of patients.