Practices of high reliability teams: Observations in trauma resuscitation

Abstract

This paper reports findings on some of the practices adopted by teams based on interviews and observations of teams working in trauma resuscitation. This study was conducted at a level I trauma center over a period of six months. Although analysis of interview transcripts is on-going, these practices can be tentatively organized into several general themes: learning and trusting other roles, sharing responsibilities, ensuring team awareness, and being adaptive. In particular, even though membership of teams in trauma resuscitation is fluid and dynamic, by sharing the overall responsibilities for the well-being of the patient, the teams are able to resist many failure factors.