Deutsch Ellen S, Patterson Mary D
Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, 333 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, USA; ECRI Institute, 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462, USA; Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation, University of Florida, 1104 Newell Drive, Suite 445, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 2019 Feb;52(1):115-121. doi: 10.1016/j.otc.2018.08.005. Epub 2018 Sep 22.
Surgeons can use simulation to improve the safety of the systems they work within, around, because of, and despite. Health care is a complex adaptive system that can never be completely knowable; simulation can expose aspects of patient care delivery that are not necessarily evident prospectively, during planning, or retrospectively, during investigations or audits. The constraints of patient care processes and adaptive capacity of health care providers may become most evident during simulations conducted "in situ" using real teams and real equipment, in actual patient care locations.