• Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
    • How I Do It
    • TRIO Best Practices
  • Business of Medicine
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Practice Management
    • Tech Talk
    • AI
  • Literature Reviews
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Career
    • Medical Education
    • Professional Development
    • Resident Focus
  • ENT Perspectives
    • ENT Expressions
    • Everyday Ethics
    • From TRIO
    • The Great Debate
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Rx: Wellness
    • The Voice
    • Viewpoint
  • TRIO Resources
    • Triological Society
    • The Laryngoscope
    • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
    • TRIO Combined Sections Meetings
    • COSM
    • Related Otolaryngology Events
  • Search

What’s the Best Way to Improve Patient Safety?

by Thomas R. Collins • March 11, 2020

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

SAN DIEGO — A panel of otolaryngologists was assembled onstage to discuss how their field could make changes to improve patient safety when Ravi Samy, MD, associate professor of otolaryngology at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, asked a question: Would you rather work with a top-performing, A-level healthcare team in a B-level system? Or would you rather work in an A-level system with a B-level healthcare team?

You Might Also Like

  • Patient Safety: It’s Not Rocket Science
  • Drawing on Tragedy to Make the Case for Patient Safety
  • First Clinical Consensus Statement on Balloon Dilation Aims to Ensure Patient Safety
  • Multidisciplinary Pediatric Teams Can Improve Patient Care
Explore This Issue
March 2020

Dr. Samy knew his answer: He’d choose top people over a top system.

“I’d rather work with phenomenal people around me, knowing that the system might not be at its best,” he said.

But in a thought-provoking discussion here at the Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting, in which physicians were forced to consider their own vulnerabilities as well as those of their broader environment, the other panelists had a different take. You and your colleagues might be top-level performers, but what if you have an off day? they asked.

People’s Vulnerabilities

Capt. Ryan Carron, a naval aviator who became a patient safety advocate after losing his son shortly after birth following a series of medical errors, suggested that it’s unreasonable to expect that someone will always perform well.

“Have you ever been a B person, or perhaps a C person?” he asked Dr. Samy, who responded, “Absolutely.”

“We all have external stressors,” said Capt. Carron, who draws from his experience in the military to describe how medical systems can better protect patients. “We all have times when we are not A personnel. I think we also have people on our team who are, period, not A personnel. For me, … I want an A system.”

Chad Zender, MD, associate chief medical officer at the University of Cincinnati, agreed.

“If we’re going to function in healthcare and provide the care we need, we have to have the systems built to work with the people who are available to us,” he said.

“Unintentional Variation”

Dr. Zender said that there are a variety of environments or problems that can lead to catastrophic medical errors. Sometimes there is a good plan and a good outcome, and sometimes there are just bad plans with bad outcomes. But he drew attention to the area in the middle—which he called “unintentional variation”—in which the plan is good but doesn’t account for unintentional events.

“I’m not talking about taking away the ability to have intended variation, where you want a different antibiotic [than the standard] because the MRSA screen was positive,” he said. “We just don’t want the wrong dose or the wrong antibiotic to show up in the room accidentally.”

In a word, the idea is reliability.

“We want a highly reliable process in healthcare that allows us to provide the health services intended consistently and failure-free over time,” he said.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Features, Home Slider Tagged With: patient safety, Triological Society Combined Sections MeetingIssue: March 2020

You Might Also Like:

  • Patient Safety: It’s Not Rocket Science
  • Drawing on Tragedy to Make the Case for Patient Safety
  • First Clinical Consensus Statement on Balloon Dilation Aims to Ensure Patient Safety
  • Multidisciplinary Pediatric Teams Can Improve Patient Care

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

Polls

Do you use AI-powered scribes for documentation?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Top Articles for Residents

  • Applications Open for Resident Members of ENTtoday Edit Board
  • How To Provide Helpful Feedback To Residents
  • Call for Resident Bowl Questions
  • New Standardized Otolaryngology Curriculum Launching July 1 Should Be Valuable Resource For Physicians Around The World
  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • How to: Positioning for Middle Cranial Fossa Repair of Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Endoscopic Ear Surgery: Advancements and Adoption Challenges 

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name

    • The Importance of Time Away
    • Endoscopic Ear Surgery: Advancements and Adoption Challenges 
    • Reflections from a Past President of the Triological Society
    • ENT Surgeons Explore the Benefits and Challenges of AI-Powered Scribes: Revolutionizing Documentation in Healthcare
    • How To: Open Expansion Laryngoplasty for Combined Glottic and Subglottic Stenosis

Follow Us

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • The Triological Society
  • The Laryngoscope
  • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies

Wiley

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1559-4939