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The Business of Failure

Dr Kevin Fong flies with a US air ambulance crew and discovers why it’s seen as one of the most dangerous occupations in America.

In a new four-part series for Â鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service and The Open University, broadcaster and medic Dr Kevin Fong explores what healthcare can learn from other organisations that succeed and fail. In this programme, Kevin joins a helicopter air ambulance crew in the United States and discovers how the combination of commercial pressures and de-regulation have resulted in helicopter EMS becoming one of the most dangerous occupations in the country. According the National Transport Safety Board, the body charged with investigating aircraft safety, over a twenty year period, they have averaged one accident every 40 days in the United States. Kevin hears from medical crew, pilots, regulators and survivors, to discover what needs to change in order to reduce accidents and improve safety for the hundreds of thousands of patients transported by helicopter air ambulances each year.

Photo by Heath Holden/Getty Images

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Tue 12 Jul 2016 14:32GMT

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Broadcasts

  • Mon 11 Jul 2016 21:32GMT
  • Tue 12 Jul 2016 01:32GMT
  • Tue 12 Jul 2016 02:32GMT
  • Tue 12 Jul 2016 03:32GMT
  • Tue 12 Jul 2016 04:32GMT
  • Tue 12 Jul 2016 06:32GMT
  • Tue 12 Jul 2016 14:32GMT

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