High Reliability Healthcare: Applying the Secrets of the Nuclear Navy to Save Patient Lives

Mistakes can be fatal--this reality is all too familiar in the healthcare industry.
Do you want better clinical outcomes, fewer errors, increased productivity, and highly reliable patient care? High Reliability Healthcare offers some actionable tips from the safest and most reliable industry ever: the nuclear navy. For over seventy-five years, the nuclear navy has operated highly enriched nuclear reactors with sailors in their twenties at the helm and has never experienced an accident. As Forbes reported, ＂The [US] Nuclear Navy has the best safety record of any industry.＂
Jeffrey Kuhlman, MD, MPH, a retired navy physician and physician to the president, and Robert Roncska, DBA, a retired navy captain in the nuclear navy who carried the nuclear codes (AKA the football) for President George W. Bush, understand this better than anyone. After excelling as leaders in the military, they recognized the organizational leadership and team-building skills they learned in the US Nuclear Navy could be applied to healthcare--an industry in dire need of an upgrade.
With hundreds of thousands of patients becoming permanently disabled or dying each year due to medical errors, it’s clear that the old approach to healthcare safety isn’t working. Kuhlman and Roncska propose applying the wisdom of an unlikely mentor--the US Nuclear Navy--to patient care.
In High Reliability Healthcare, they provide practical tools to turn healthcare into a high-reliability organization--one that is safe and efficient even in a high-risk environment. They’re ready to bring to healthcare what the nuclear navy has been successfully practicing for over seventy-five years.

Jeffrey ＂Leno＂ Kuhlman, MD, MPH, a triple-certified physician, served in the navy for thirty years and has extensive aviation and aerospace medicine experience. Leno was assigned as White House Physician from 2000 to 2013, as director of the White House Medical Unit for President George W. Bush and personal physician for President Barack Obama. Today, he is the chief quality and safety officer for AdventHealth.

Robert ＂Navy Bob＂ Roncska, DBA, had a distinguished twenty-eight-year career in the US Navy, serving as the Pacific Fleet’s top fast-attack submarine commodore and as the naval aide to President George W. Bush. He is currently a national speaker on leadership and high reliability, as well as an adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida School of Global Health Management and Informatics.