Modeled after the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, a new partnership in health care could greatly reduce errors that harm patients, say leading experts in patient safety. Citing growing awareness of the dangers of radiation therapies, such as reported in the New York Times and elsewhere, Peter Pronovost and colleagues suggest that to reduce the risk of harm to patients from medical devices, health care needs a private-public partnership to supplement the professional, regulatory and financial incentives in place today. Clearly, the mounting data on patients harmed from mistakes in radiation therapy provide one strong case example on the need for such a partnership.
To achieve a successful partnership modeled after the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, which has contributed to the ongoing decline in deaths due to aviation, Dr. Pronovost and his colleagues cite the need for leadership, financing and active participation by relevant government agencies, provider groups and health care delivery systems.
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