A team of researchers, led by experts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, studied surgical procedures at VA medical facilities across the country between 2006 and 2008.
In particular, they zeroed in on the effect of the VA's Medical Team Training Program, which educates entire groups of surgical staffers -- including surgeons, nurse anesthetists and other technicians -- to improve surgical outcomes.
The training is inspired by advances in aviation safety, where pilots need to embrace teamwork -- most notably, input from co-pilots -- to earn their wings.
"Health care, and especially surgical care, is too often viewed as primarily a solo activity rather than as a team function," reads an editorial accompanying the study, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. "Poor teamwork contributes prominently to most adverse events, including those in the operating room."
Groups are taught to use checklists to debrief before and after surgical procedures, giving surgery participants a chance to review patient details, express concerns or potential problems, and then review how the procedure went and what could have been improved.
The training also helps surgical teams learn to communicate using clear, effective techniques. In particular, those who work alongside surgeons (like anesthesiologists) are trained to speak up about problems.
Researchers analyzed more than 182,000 surgical procedures at 108 VA medical facilities, then concluded that teamwork training led to an 18 percent decrease in annual patient mortality rates.
Previous studies have indicated that this kind of team training can boost teamwork, attitudes and communication. But this is the first research that uses a control group to demonstrate just how lifesaving teamwork training is.
And in what researchers call "a dose-response relationship," the more rigorously the training was implemented, the better the rates of success.
Troubling findings released just this week by researchers at the Denver Medical Health Center only reinforce the study's salient implications.
After evaluating thousands of procedures, researchers determined that medical errors are still too common, despite tighter regulations imposed in the last decade.
Colorado doctors evaluated in that study performed surgery on the wrong body part 107 times between 2002 and 2008, and even operated on the wrong patient 25 times.
"I was shocked when I saw the numbers," Dr. Philip Stahel, the study's lead author, told ABC News. "I'm not sure if the number of mistakes went up or the reporting of the mistakes went up."
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Given the major decline in mortality reported after the VA training, teamwork might be the most important regulation for health care systems to implement."The health care community must make good teamwork the norm rather than the exception," said the editorial on the teamwork study, adding that the specifics of implementation will vary depending on the surgical specialty.
"In too many hospitals and too many operating rooms, clinicians may still perceive that they are battling each other, each trying to push harder rather than help others," the editorial continues, "too often forgetting they are on the same team."
