Nearly 65 million surgical operations were performed in 2015 in the U.S. resulting in an estimated 200,000 deaths from complications or other post-operative issues (Ghaferi, Myers, Sutcliffe, & Pronovost, 2016). Ongoing innovation in healthcare can improve patient outcomes. According to the Harvard Business Review article, The Next Wave of Hospital Innovation to Make Patients Safer, over the past several decades, there have been three distinct waves of surgical improvement: technical advancements, standardizing procedures, and high reliability organizing.
