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Risk, Failure, and Rescue

 
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Bob T



Joined: 11 Jan 2005
Posts: 3273
Location: Ammonoosuc Watershed
PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 4:48 pm    Post subject: Risk, Failure, and Rescue Reply with quote
Excellent article in the New Yorker by a surgeon about risk, failure, and response to failure.

Quote:
Scientists have given a new name to the deaths that occur in surgery after something goes wrong—whether it is an infection or some bizarre twist of the stomach. They call them a “failure to rescue.” More than anything, this is what distinguished the great from the mediocre. They didn’t fail less. They rescued more.

This may in fact be the real story of human and societal improvement. We talk a lot about “risk management”—a nice hygienic phrase. But in the end, risk is necessary. Things can and will go wrong. Yet some have a better capacity to prepare for the possibility, to limit the damage, and to sometimes even retrieve success from failure.
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aqua_toque



Joined: 07 Dec 2004
Posts: 3088
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, self-rescue is good.
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!ski



Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 6145
Location: Boulder CO
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
One of his books:

http://www.amazon.com/Complications-Surgeons-Notes-Imperfect-Science/dp/0312421702

is sort of interesting - and makes some good general points
applicable to any activity - which appeared to make no impression
upon my colleagues at the time ...

What is the saying "An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."

Rocks with lips.

-r
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TeleKay



Joined: 16 Mar 2007
Posts: 713
Location: sunny southern california
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
His next two books Better and The Checklist Manifesto are pretty awesome too...highly recommend reading all three. Reading them in sequence is pretty cool too since Complications is from his experiences in med school, Better from residency, and Checklist from being an attending physician/professor.

An anecdote that stuck with me was that Dr.G took a writing class in college, and the instructor advised him that his writing was going to go nowhere...when somebody interviewed the instructor after he got established as the New Yorker medical correspondent and after his books got published, he said that he was glad his student did not take his advice!
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a ship is safe in a harbor, but that is not what it is designed for.
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