The U.S. healthcare system is now spending many millions of dollars to improve "patient safety" and "inter-professional practice." Nevertheless, an estimated 100,000 patients still succumb to preventable medical errors or infections every year. How can health care providers reduce the terrible financial and human toll of medical errors and injuries that harm rather than heal? Beyond the Checklist argues that lives could be saved and patient care enhanced by adapting the relevant lessons of aviation safety and teamwork. In response to a series of human-error caused crashes, the airline industry developed the system of job training and information sharing known as Crew Resource Management (CRM). Under the new industry-wide system of CRM, pilots, flight attendants, and ground crews now communicate and cooperate in ways that have greatly reduced the hazards of commercial air travel.

Foreword by Captain Chesley "Sully" SullenbergerIntroduction1 History of Crew Resource Management2 Communication3 Case Study: Maimonides Medical Center4 Team Building5 Case Study: Osher Clinical Center for Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies6 Workload Management7 Case Study: Interprofessional Education and Practice at the University of Toronto8 Threat and Error Management9 Why CRM Worked10 The Problems in Medicine11 ConclusionAppendix: Maimonides Medical Center Code of Mutual RespectGlossaryNotesIndex