Team Resource Management in Surgery and Endoscopy

Background: In the field of acute medicine, the vast majority of
riskfuland prognosis-relevant procedures are not performed by
individuals butrather by (ad hoc) teams. Method: Findings in
scientific papersimpressively show the causes of medical mishaps
and severe errors aswell as the lasting effectiveness of training
in team resource formats(Team Resource Management, TRM) in order to
combat these chains oferrors in acute medicine. Results: The
analysis of the literature since2003 and the numerous findings
regarding the research of medical errorsshow that more than 70% of
the severe and prognosis-relevant mishapsand complications can be
assigned to the medical providers themselves.The implementation and
continuous advancement of patient safety in thefield of human
factors as well as the application of TRM-relatedprinciples
requires a sound and widely accepted safety culture as abasis.
Conclusions: TRM training measures and non-punitive
criticalincident reporting systems effectively contribute to an
increasing andmeasurable improvement of the safety culture in acute
medicine.