ABSTRACT

Resilience is a feature of some systems that allows them to respond to sudden, unanticipated demands for performance and then to return to their normal operating condition quickly and with a minimum decrement in their performance. This chapter describes some of the cognitive features of resilience. Cases are scheduled for the outpatient clinic, the inpatient operating rooms (IOR) or four other services, such as radiology. The most acute cases are treated in the IOR. A computerized tomography (CT) scan was planned and the patient was taken on a gurney to the CT scanner, while connected to a pulse oximeter, electrocardiograph, and non-invasive blood pressure monitor. The senior anaesthesiologist and a neurosurgeon accompanied her as a staff security person cleared a path through the hospital corridors. As the CT scan was made, the chief neurosurgeon arrived and, together with a radiologist, read images at the console as they were processed.