Team Training and Resource Management in Health Care: Current Issues and Future Directions

Abstract

Many authorities have suggested that some variant of team training is likely to be an effective means to reduce human error in operating rooms, emergency departments, resuscitation teams and other settings within healthcare where human interaction is common, and where breakdowns in communication and teamwork can have critical consequences. The implementation of formal training in teamwork for healthcare workers, analogous to aviation’s crew resource management (or CRM) used to train pilots, was a specific recommendation of the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Healthcare System, released in 2000. 1 Indeed, our own research group has made this same recommendation on multiple occasions over recent years. 2-4 Team training is also currently suggested as part of a comprehensive Patient Safety Plan published by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the regulatory agency charged with hospital accreditation in the United Sates. 5-6