Evidence-based patient safety advisory for ambulatory surgery.

摘要

In 2009, citizens of the world have lifted a bona fide hero as well as scores of grieving mourners upon our collective shoulders after aviation accidents. In January, Chesley B. Sullenberger Ill's training and "habits" took over as he successfully landed USAirways Flight 1549 in New York City's Hudson River. The landing was dubbed a "miracle" and "Sully" Sullenberger was instantly made into a national symbol of heroism; all 155 passengers and crew were alive and safe.2 But this "miracle" has twice since been echoed with tragedy: February's crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 caused the death of 50 people near Buffalo, New York, and June's crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean claimed the lives of 228 people. To reiterate what Britain's chief medical officer said, there is always a chance something catastrophic can happen, in surgery and aviation alike. Granted it is a "rare occurrence." Nevertheless, we must take all precautions possible to ensure safety, learn from both the miracles and the tragedies, and aim to make those rare occurrences even more rare. Just as airline passengers entrust their safety, their very lives, to those in the cockpit, with every procedure patients entrust their safety to their surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses.