By Healthcare Facilities Today

In her recent blog on the Fierce Healthcare website, editor Alicia Caramenico discussed how the healthcare industry has taken lessons in safety and efficiency from the auto industry and from the chain-restaurant industry for best practices on large-scale delivery of quality, coordinated and affordable services.

She quoteed a recent Hospital Impact post, physician executive Jonathan Burroughs borrowed strategies from the airline industry to reduce healthcare waste, such as scheduling all arrivals and departures in advance. This isn't the first time aviation has offered healthcare lessons - for example, the airline industry had a lot to teach healthcare about technology reliance and patient safety - and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Caramenico said the airline solution sparked an huge reader response — a good indication of the importance of reducing waste and inefficiency in healthcare.

"Regardless of how we get there," Caramenico wrote, "plane, train or automobile, the key is being on the road to better healthcare delivery. So perhaps we can heed the safety lessons from airplanes and lean efficiency tips from cars, and use appropriate best practices from various industries to make healthcare a safer, leaner, more efficient delivery system for patients." 

Read the blog.