Simulation Center to test new nurses
By Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
MESA, Ariz. (Aug. 3, 2009) -- Banner Simulation Medical Center in Mesa will have no human patients, just 71 computerized mannequins that lie in beds waiting for programmers to give them strokes, heart attacks or even breech births.
But this malicious array of life-threatening maladies has a lofty goal: saving lives by eliminating deadly medical errors.
When the first classes of operating-room nurses undergo training this week, the new facility will be the largest medical simulation center in the country.
It's part of a nationwide trend spawned by a patient-safety movement after studies a decade ago found that errors in hospitals account for an estimated 40,000 to 90,000 deaths per year.
