Patient safety in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS): The safety management system

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. Albert Einstein.

You could be right in thinking that “safety crusaders” are the glass half empty type, right? Those that believe “what can go wrong, will go wrong” (Murphys Law).

I’m not a pessimist, but I do believe in being prepared for the potential for error, or for when things do genuinely go wrong.  We need to avoid Einstein’s insanity; repeating that same thing and expecting different results the next time (as the next time might be a catastrophic outcome).  As HEMS clinicians we have a responsibility to get our patients from the pre-hospital to the hospital environment without harm, to the best of our abilities.  A culture of safety and forethought, identifying and mitigating for potential hazards (threat and error management) is a prominent facet of our work.

Both Aviation and medicine involve…