5 Lessons Healthcare Leaders learns From An Unlikely Source

Healthcare in the USA is not safe. One in 4 sufferers admitted to a hospital will suffer some form of unintended harm, one in 6 will get an infection and over 500 a day will die of a preventable mistake. Healthcare is believed to be the most dangerous occupation—more dangerous than coal mining or building skyscrapers.

With various persons getting hurt, many healthcare leaders are attempting to import effective safety strategies from other industries. A conference today hosted by Johns Hopkins’ Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality will explore these concepts. Led by Armstrong’s director, MacArthur “Genius Grant” awardee Dr. Peter Pronovost, the conference will investigate instances of “high reliability” strategies utilized in manufacturing, transportation and other industries.

1 sector Pronovost considers worthy of specific attention is nuclear power, an industry where—thank heavens—safety and protection is king.

In the wake of the 1989 Chernobyl accident, the leaders of every commercial nuclear reactor across the globe made the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), with the objective of gaining industry-wide excellence. WANO sends teams of peer reviewers to analyze operations and make sure the safety at every commercial nuclear power plant in the globe.

“We like to say the complete industry is arranged hostage to each other,” elaborated Riccardo Chiarelli, WANO senior program manager. “If an accident happens in a nuclear power plant in the country Japan, the nuclear industry in the U.S.A and everywhere else will be affected. If we need to succeed as an industry, we require making sure everybody is at the greatest level of excellence. We can’t afford low performance anywhere in the world.”

Chiarelli was recently inquired to speak at a forum of the National Academy of Sciences on future directions for safer patient care, and will be offering a webinar February 25 at the Imperial College of London, on how lessons learned from the nuclear industry can be applied to sufferer safety. What follows is a summary of a conversation I had with Chiarelli over the principles of nuclear protection that might be implemented to healthcare.

1. Leadership and accountability are inextricably connected.


2. Concentrate on results.


3. When employees speak, leadership listens.


4. There are no isolated tragedies.


5. Aspire to be ideal and perfect.