Is ‘Crew Resource Management' an Alternative to Procedure-Based Strategies to Improve Patient Safety in Hospitals?

In hospitals, procedure-based strategies can be defined as the systematic use of procedures or series of steps followed in a regular order to complete a task. This definition covers a mix of several different mechanisms aimed at controlling, organizing and standardizing clinical work processes. This chapter analyses mechanisms to show how procedures are implemented to control and standardize healthcare professional's clinical activities and improve patient safety. Crew Resource Management (CRM) is designed to improve the way healthcare professional's think and act during crisis or routine management of patients by improving communication and teamwork. The key concept of CRM is: 'Training crews to reduce "pilot errors" by making better use of the human resources on the flight deck'. This case report shows that CRM-based training programmes developed within the aviation community can be implemented in hospitals and are an effective way to improve teamwork and ultimately quality and safety of care