Chasing the 6-sigma: drawing lessons from the cockpit culture. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

Chasing the 6-sigma: drawing lessons from the cockpit culture. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

• Commentary
 
• Published September 2017

Chasing the 6-sigma: drawing lessons from the cockpit culture.

Hickey EJ, Halvorsen F, Laussen PC, Hirst G, Schwartz S, Van Arsdell GS. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2018;155:690-696.e1.

Aviation safety relies on systems improvement rather than individual blame to understand and mitigate failure. This commentary applies principles key to that philosophy from commercial aviation to medicine. The authors highlight vigilance, team performance, and nontechnical skilldevelopment as strategies to improve reliability in critical care and surgery.

PubMed citationAvailable at

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