Japanese Medical Interns Break New Ground With Team Training
By Ben Avey, USNH Yokosuka Public Affairs

Japanese medical interns, who are learning the United States approach to medical care during a one year internship at U.S. Naval Hospital (USNH) Yokosuka, broke new ground as the first intern class to learn Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) teamwork system April 9.

TeamSTEPPS was designed by the U.S. Department of Defense in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care. It has been utilized by the U.S. Navy for several years to standardize the methods by which personnel interact and communicate with each other regarding patient care.

According to Japan National Institute of Public Health representative and TeamSTEPPS Master Instructor Dr. Kenichiro Taneda, the relatively new system has gained international notoriety and is slowly being implemented by the medical community of his country.

“I think patient safety is an international issue,” said Taneda. “Most medical accidents are due to problems with team issues. That fact makes [Japanese medical personnel] very interested in team training.”

TeamSTEPPS training has been fully integrated into daily operations at USNH Yokosuka and is required training for all incoming personnel, according to USNH Yokosuka Commanding Officer Capt. Kevin Moore.

“We have found that the team medicine concept has improved the level of care we provide our patients,” said Moore. “Whether they are working directly with patients or supporting those who do, TeamSTEPPS has improved our methods of communication and the way in which our team works together.”

USNH Yokosuka invited Taneda to teach the TeamSTEPPS course for the interns to better implement a program initially designed for an American audience.

“The idea was [for the interns] to learn from someone who understands Japanese culture and the TeamSTEPPS communication methods and to marry them together,” said USNH Yokosuka medical provider and Japanese Internship Program Coordinator Lt. Cmdr. Sean Skelton. “This will help our Japanese medical professionals communicate better with each other and the rest of the medical team.”

The interns are among the first Japanese providers to learn the TeamSTEPPS system. Taneda is hopeful that the interns will become master instructors like him and help spread the program across the country for the sake of both Japanese and American patients. “Sometimes [American] military hospitals in Japan send patients to Japanese hospitals, so [better] collaboration can facilitate safer and higher quality of care for patients,” said Taneda.

Future intern classes will learn TeamSTEPPS as a part of their initial indoctrination training when they come on board each year. “They already understand the Japanese way of thinking, so if they can understand our way of thinking better, then we think they can act better in their capacity,” said Skelton.

The USNH Yokosuka internship program was founded in 1952 and has become a highly respected program for medical providers in Japan. Each year, six Japanese providers are selected to learn outpatient and inpatient medicine and assist as medical liaisons with host nation medical facilities. Interns complete rotations in internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology as well as a number of elective specialties.

USNH Yokosuka is the largest U.S. military treatment facility on mainland Japan and serves approximately 33,000 beneficiaries. A 47-bed core hospital in Yokosuka on the banks of Tokyo Bay is complimented by eight branch health clinics in Japan, Korea and Diego Garcia.

That is pretty fascinating. We use the TeamSTEPPS program at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. It is great that this system to improve communication and reduce medical errors is being shared throughout the world.