How Ferrari’s F1 Team Improved Medical Care for Children
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London improved their surgery-to-ICU handoff process by observing how Ferrari’s F1 team handled pit stops.
GOSH doctors visited and observed the pit crew handoff in Italy. While visiting the Formula One pit crew the GOSH doctors became interested in the way they addressed possible failure. The crew sat around a big table analyzing and reanalyzing, asking, “What could go wrong?” and “What are we going to do if it does go wrong?” and “How important is it if it goes wrong?” Everyone’s ideas were given equal weight until the group ranked them using the failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA).
This anticipatory planning made the pit crew more prepared than the medical team whose strategy tended to be waiting until something went wrong to work out what they should have done. Observing the pit crew, the GOSH doctors noted the value of process mapping, process description, and trying to work out what people’s tasks should be. They learned the keys to a successful pit stop:
– The routine in the pit stop is taken seriously
– What happens in the pit stop is predictable so problems can be anticipated and procedures can be standardized
– Crews practice those procedures until they can perform them perfectly
– Everyone knows their job, but one person is always in charge
Among their findings that led to improvement:
While the main theme changes were more sophisticated procedures and better choreographed teamwork, another aspect of the Formula One handover process easily transferred to the hospital setting. The lollipop man is the one who waves the car in and coordinates the pit stop. He maintains overall situation awareness during the pit stop. In the old hospital handover there was no one like the lollipop man so it was unclear who was in charge. Under the new handover process, the anesthetist was given overall responsibility for coordinating the team until it was transferred to the intensivist at the termination of the handover. These same two individuals were charged with the responsibility of periodically stepping back to look at the big picture and to make safety checks of the handover.
According to this video about the hospital’s study, they were able to reduce the number of errors in the handover by 66%.
(thx, meg)
Tags: Formula One · medicine · video
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London improved their surgery-to-ICU handoff process by observing how Ferrari’s F1 team handled pit stops.
GOSH doctors visited and observed the pit crew handoff in Italy. While visiting the Formula One pit crew the GOSH doctors became interested in the way they addressed possible failure. The crew sat around a big table analyzing and reanalyzing, asking, “What could go wrong?” and “What are we going to do if it does go wrong?” and “How important is it if it goes wrong?” Everyone’s ideas were given equal weight until the group ranked them using the failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA).
This anticipatory planning made the pit crew more prepared than the medical team whose strategy tended to be waiting until something went wrong to work out what they should have done. Observing the pit crew, the GOSH doctors noted the value of process mapping, process description, and trying to work out what people’s tasks should be. They learned the keys to a successful pit stop:
– The routine in the pit stop is taken seriously
– What happens in the pit stop is predictable so problems can be anticipated and procedures can be standardized
– Crews practice those procedures until they can perform them perfectly
– Everyone knows their job, but one person is always in charge
Among their findings that led to improvement:
While the main theme changes were more sophisticated procedures and better choreographed teamwork, another aspect of the Formula One handover process easily transferred to the hospital setting. The lollipop man is the one who waves the car in and coordinates the pit stop. He maintains overall situation awareness during the pit stop. In the old hospital handover there was no one like the lollipop man so it was unclear who was in charge. Under the new handover process, the anesthetist was given overall responsibility for coordinating the team until it was transferred to the intensivist at the termination of the handover. These same two individuals were charged with the responsibility of periodically stepping back to look at the big picture and to make safety checks of the handover.
According to this video about the hospital’s study, they were able to reduce the number of errors in the handover by 66%.
(thx, meg)
Tags: Formula One · medicine · video
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