Full Military Hospital Simulation Shows Promise for Civilian Hospital Application

​Healthcare risk managers and quality professionals may be interested in the results of a study published in the August 2014 issue of Annals of Surgery that evaluated the efficacy of an entire hospital simulation in imparting higher-level skills to expert healthcare providers. During the study, a total of 288 participants undertook a three-day training program (HOSPEX) within the U.K. Defence Medical Services' Hospital Simulator, a fully immersive live-in simulation experience that recreates the environment and processes of a military hospital in its entirety, including ambient noise and temperatures; hospital layout; clinical, administration, and discharge processes; complex patient cases; equipment; and full transport support, including helicopter patient transfer. Participants included attending surgeons, anesthesiologists, physicians, senior nurses, and support staff, all of whom already possessed expert technical expertise. HOSPEX focused on imparting high-level crisis management skills (e.g., simulation of multiple simultaneous trauma calls), relevant nontechnical skills (e.g., prioritization decisions, team leadership, stress management), and familiarization with hostile and stressful care delivery conditions (e.g., delivering care while under attack). The data demonstrated that reliability in skills assessment was excellent.