The parallels between aviation and health care
With one grandson already interested in becoming a pilot and two other grandkids heading toward degrees and jobs in health care, I’ve spent some interesting hours drawing parallels between the uniqueness of these choices. The contrasts between the professions range from strikingly similar to what can seem like polar opposites.
It’s absolutely true that both health care and aviation are hooked on technological innovation, and, interestingly, both have tried desperately to make strides toward service excellence. The methods and divergent paths they have taken to achieve efficiency, safety, and happy customers can be circuitous and sometimes numbing.
A metaphorical flight into the world of health care is not like the airline experience, where we might easily book online, are given transparent pricing information, have time outcome predictions, and even destination options with just a few taps.In health care, we are, instead, faced with issues of potentially endless waits, unpredictable findings, sometimes incredible bills, and occasionally less than satisfactory outcomes.
In both worlds, safety, punctuality, and comfort are key indicators of patient and customer satisfaction. Of course, airlines can also deal with ridiculous delays, bumpy rides, squished seating, crying babies, nasty passengers, and even grumpy flight attendants. Being on schedule, treated with dignity, and having a successful outcome would be a dream come true, but, as Frank Sinatra sang about reality, “That’s life.”
Meanwhile, in both fields, each procedure or flight undergoes a series of meticulous checks and re-checks. Safety is valued above all else. Here’s where there’s some interesting tactical differences. Would, for example, overworked physicians with stress-filled lives put up with the additional scrutiny of enduring regular required hours in simulators, constant physical fitness assessments, and random drug screening without prior offenses? Or could pilots stand the thought of trying to stay on top of the million articles written each year about new scientific findings, new drugs, new methodologies, and unlimited patient differences?
I’m pretty sure that neither profession could truly embrace the playful description of pilots who are in charge of the lives of sometimes hundreds of people who describe their jobs as “hours of boredom peppered with seconds of terror.”
The training for both professions can be extremely intense as well. If it’s military training, every day you’re flying or working in remote health care facilities in war zones could be your last. Not unlike Navy Seal training, medical school, internships, and fellowships are competitively, emotionally, and physically intense and sometimes brutal experiences. Doctors are often subjected to draconian Socratic professors who grill, blame, humiliate, and harass their students as if they were participants in a game of “Survivor – Health Care Edition.”
The good news about air travel is that statistically, you’d have to fly 24 hours a day for 438 years to be in a fatal crash. On the other hand, medical errors still account for a staggering number of deaths each year. In fact, according to some sources, the annual loss of life from medical errors is equivalent to a passenger plane dropping out of the sky every single day.
Ultimately, both industries are focused on our continued well-being, and their paths do intersect in surprising ways. So, before you criticize either pilots or physicians, remember they are typically extraordinary individuals who have dedicated themselves to service to others, and someday soon they may be my grandkids.
The next time you lose focus while you’re driving, think about doing that at 35,000 feet, or worse yet, while you’re holding a scalpel over someone’s heart or eyeball. So, here’s to the amazing work they do every day. Let’s hope they both continue to embrace excellence, transparency, and innovation while avoiding excessive use of the word “terminal.”
Nick Jacobs is a Windber resident.