Some safety measures commonly used in aviation have been successfully adapted for health care settings. For instance, the World Health Organization's surgical safety checklist is quick and inexpensive to implement and, in some settings, its use has reduced deaths and complications for surgical patients by more than a third.
Other aviation innovations, however, aren't as commonplace in health care, even though they may help save lives and prevent injury. In a Commonwealth Fund–supported study in the new issue of Milbank Quarterly, researchers identified 15 safety practices in aviation that might be applied to health care, from the "sterile cockpit" rule to incentivized no-fault reporting. Read more to learn how these and other practices could help make patients safer.
