Safe Surgery Trainer Project Management Plan (PMP), Version 1.0

Abstract : According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), up to 690,000 patients are affected by medical errors each year in the United States. Of those, up to 98,000 will die. This makes medical mistakes the six leading cause of death in the nation worse than breast cancer, Alzheimer s, and diabetes. There are many root causes, including human error, poor teamwork, and ineffective communication. Studies from both the IOM and the Military Health System (MHS) have concluded that most of these errors are caused by breakdowns in communication which can be prevented through patient safety protocols. Patient safety impacts all members of the medical team, including nurses, corpsmen, and surgical staff. Alion and our partners (UCF, IDEAS, and Synensis Health) have been selected by the Office of Naval Research to develop and build the Safe Surgery Trainer (SST) - a game-based trainer for perioperative teams. The immersive engagement provided in a training game enables experiential learning that may increase teamwork skills, cross monitoring, and the adoption of patient safety protocols. SST is similar to the Damage Control Trainer we built for the US Navy Recruits at RTC Great Lakes. In 2011, that program became standard curriculum for every Navy sailor after it demonstrated a massive 50% improvement in recruit performance. The Safe Surgery Trainer will allow each member of the surgical team to experience all roles within the perioperative system (i.e., nurse, surgeon, anesthetist, etc .). This approach reflects recent research that high performance medical teams perform better by gaining an appreciation and understanding for each other s role. The Project Management Plan (PM) is developed as part of Alion s Capability Maturity Model 3 development processes to help ensure project success. It captures key project data, ensures all aspects of management have been considered, and identifies the overarching plan for the project.