Last week, my wife was watching ABC's show “Grey's Anatomy,” as she always does. Again, as she often does, she'll pause it for me when there's a scene related to patient safety, so I can watch.
In this scene, below, “McDreamy” (Patrick Dempsey) and his colleagues are talking to lawyers about a plane crash that killed some other colleagues (this is a medical soap opera, mind you). McDreamy goes on a bit of a McPreachy speech about how hospitals analyze errors to prevent future occurrences.
My wife found it a bit ironic that a doctor was lecturing somebody in aviation about how to improve safety and prevent errors. I agreed. Learn how aviation is actually teaching healthcare about safety — via “crew resource management” and other culture changes…
Other Grey's Anatomy moments I've blogged about:
- Checklists Promoted and Debated on “Grey's Anatomy”
- “McDreamy” Fights the Blame Game on “Grey's Anatomy”
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Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. His latest book is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. He also published the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.
Aviation safety owes a lot to medicine. Pre-flight checklists, crew resource management, and the blame-free culture–investigating to find cause and preventative action instead of suing each other– all came from—- wait a minute… what did McDreamy say?
Exactly. Grey’s got it backwards.
Seriously, though, Mark, this would be the perfect opportunity for Sully Sullenberger to guest star and teach the producers and the public more about how health care quality can be improved.