Chesley Sullenberger Wants New Federal Health Care Agency For Medical Error Deaths

Chesley Sullenberger is remembered for the so-called miracle on the Hudson river, but he’s been busy fighting for patients and employees in the medical and airline industries.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, multiple careers isn’t any new to the pilot since he’s also been an accident investigator and a safety lecturer long before he had to ditch the US Airways A320 in the water.

The fifth anniversary of the January 15 airplane crash is today and yesterday Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was honored in New York City for saving the lives of the 155 passengers. Swiss watch maker JeanRichard even named a product after him called the 208 Seconds Aeroscope, which is in reference to the length of time the plane was in the air:

“The watch showcases…Sully’s inspirational achievement in seconds of great urgency, and his efforts since then to continue to help change and improve people’s lives and support organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Rory Staunton Foundation.”

Sullenberger thanked them for supporting his philanthropic work since every purchase donates money to those causes.

And he’s been quite busy in other ways, as well. Since retiring from US Airways in 2010, Sully has joined The Journal of Patient Safety in hopes of reducing the number of medical errors, which have taken the lives of 200,000 people each year, which is the “equivalent to three airline passenger planes crashing a day with no survivors.” He believes it’s possible to apply “all the things we’ve learned for decades in aviation and making them transferable to medicine, where the need is so great.”

Peter Pronovost, director of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, says Chesley Sullenberger is pointing to the need for “having an expert team rather than a team of experts.” The highly technical field can fall prey to errors caused by individuals, poor communication, defective equipment, or faulty systems.

As such, it should be possible to apply the lessons of the airline industry to improving the medical field. The former pilot feels they should implement a checklist system similar to how airplanes are operated. He believes the deaths are preventable and calls for a new Federal agency to investigate hospital deaths in order to determine systematic failures and prevent them from occurring again:

“I guess I’m the eternal optimist. I think in our society, as with every other crisis it has faced, whether it’s slavery or seat belt use or smoking, we eventually do the right thing. The question is when. In 20 years, when we’ve lost 4 million more people to preventable deaths? My vote is to do it now.”

What do you think about the ideas of Chesley Sullenberger? Do you think the health care system could use more oversight or do you think the government is already too intrusive as it is?