Failure to rescue and 30‐day in‐hospital mortality in hospitals with and without crew‐resource‐management safety training

Failure to rescue (FTR) occurs when a clinician is unable to save a hospitalized patient's life when they experience a complication that was not present on admission. Research suggests that a focus on patient safety, including implementing airline-industry-based-crew-resource management (CRM) training, can improve patient outcomes, however, the effects of CRM on FTR are unknown. This study examined FTR and 30-day in-hospital mortality (IM) outcomes in two hospitals to determine if differences existed in the treatment hospital (received CRM training) and the comparison hospital (did not receive CRM training). Researchers expected there would be lower rates of FTR and IM in the treatment hospital than the comparison hospital. The study utilized a matched two-group comparison, cross-sectional quasi-experimental design. Over 10,000 patients (n = 10,823) comprised the study with 1,764 having at least one FTR complication. Adjusted odds of FTR were 2.9% higher for treatment versus comparison but these results did not reach significance. The adjusted odds of IM were 0.4% higher for treatment versus comparison but not significantly higher. Although the reasons for our findings remain unclear, previous researchers also found that CRM training improved staff outcomes but unexpectedly did not improve patient outcomes. CRM training may best be used to target changes in staff behaviors and improvement in staff outcomes. Refresher CRM training may be needed to prevent drifting back into longstanding behaviors. Reductions in FTR and patients with IM outcomes may require more comprehensive, multipronged interventions in addition to CRM training.