ThinkThroughTools Develops New Strategic Partnership with S.I.N.A.

ThinkThroughTools has partnered with S.I.N.A (Safety Is... No Accidents) to combine on-site training and on-line software for 365 Safety AMRM (Air Medical Resource Management).

"S.I.N.A. is now our preferred provider for onsite safety AMRM training," says Rich Obertots, CEO of ThinkThroughTools. "S.I.N.A. provides the on-site training and our 365 Safety AMRM on-demand software provides daily support and testing 365 days a year to assure that S.I.N.A. and AMRM are used and supported daily."

Roy Eckrote, a Vietnam helicopter pilot, and a former chief pilot and safety officer for an air medical program based in Texas, founded S.I.N.A. a few years ago, but officially launched the business in January 2006. Eckrote, one of the most experienced and respected men in the industry, says that his organization is dedicated to making the Air Medical Transport arena a better and safer environment to work.  

"Our goal is to have an effect on the accident rate in our industry," explains Eckrote.  "It's a real concern to us.  We will never know the type of impact we have in terms of preventing an accident.  We just want to reduce the accident rate, and hopefully save some lives."

The concept was originally supposed to be a one-man operation.

"I was just going to do some safety consulting and teach, and it grew from that," says Eckrote. "We now have a total of nine instructors, and we teach, not only air medical resource managers, but also first responders and ambulance crews. It has grown and evolved throughout the years." 

S.I.N.A. has 75 hours of material for Air Medical Transport programs and about 40 hours of ground crew responder-type training. 

"All of our instructors work in the industry," says Eckrote. "We have instructors, pilots, flight nurses and air medics teaching in our program.  We do that so we can offer different perspectives, and it's not a one-sided view on any of our training."

S.I.N.A. is the only Crew Resource Management training center that designs onsite training exclusively to meet the needs of Air Medical Transport programs and aircraft vendors.  

"Our training is very interactive," says Eckrote.  "People learn better with interactive programs.  They're able to retain more information.  We conduct research so we can offer real-life scenarios for a very interactive training experience.  This is a way for us to keep it fresh.  We always update the presentation and provide real-life scenarios.  We don't just read slides for four hours. We want to get people involved and interested." 

In one of their current presentations, Eckrote says that they use an example of a flight nurse who left the cargo door latch unsecured. When the helicopter took off, a blanket flew out, hit the tail rotor, and subsequently crashed.   

"Fortunately, the pilot was able to get the helicopter on the ground right side up," says Eckrote.  "No one was injured.  When he did his mayday call, he never let go of his mic.  In our program, we play the audio of that call until he made impact.  It has a tremendous impact in telling the story.  I interview the nurse and the pilot in a video.  The nurse talks about what went wrong that day and takes full responsibility.  The pilot and nurse also tell the audience how they felt that day--what was going on through their mind as they were going down."

Eckrote emphasizes the importance of ongoing training.

"We may do a four-hour basic course and then go back three months later and do two hours of communication or crew dynamics," he says.  "And then maybe three months later, we go back and do a program on decision-making.  This makes it a more in-depth program, rather than a basic four-hour program where we try to cover a 8 or 9 different topics of courses required by the FAA."

S.I.N.A presentations are designed specifically for each Air Medical Transport program.  All instructors are experienced in Air Medical Transport and are completely compliant with FAA Circular Guidelines. Training is conducted onsite at each location.

"The programs have gone very well so far," says Eckrote. "People seem to enjoy the training.  We often do critiques of our program and ask the attendees to evaluate us, and the feedback is about 98% positive. They especially like the interactive portion of it."

Last month, Northwest MedStar (Spokane, WA) underwent S.I.N.A. training for its crew. 95 pilots, mechanics, flight nurses, flight respiratory therapists, communication specialists and administrative staff participated in the training. Wade Scoles, Staff Education Coordinator at Northwest MedStar says that the training was very well-received.

"S.I.N.A. was very highly recommended by Rich Obertots at ThinkThroughTools," says Scoles. "Once he explained to us what Roy's program consisted of, it sounded like exactly what we were looking for."

Crew members went through a 4-hour program on AMRM and safety & accident prevention.  

"The S.I.N.A. presentation stressed the importance of not becoming complacent and being very conscious and deliberate about safety. Most accidents can be prevented if you stay vigilant," says Scoles. "This is the first program that we had seen that presented so many true accident stories that were excellent learning scenarios. Some were very tragic and the seriousness and reality of that really hit close to home with the flight crews and held their attention."

Scoles says that he would recommend all flight programs hold a safety event like the ones offered by S.I.N.A. at least annually.

"I have received nothing but positive feedback about the S.I.N.A. presentation," says Scoles. "It would have been a daunting task to try and put together a program as complete and valuable as Roy offers. We were very pleased."

 Obertots stresses the need for more programs to undergo the Safety AMRM training.

"Safety AMRM training needs to be conducted as part of your ongoing training program with constant reinforcement," says Obertots. "As an industry we must stop asking, 'Why did this happen?' and take positive steps to make sure it doesn’t happen."