The video below, “If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care” has been making the rounds of the healthcare blogosphere. I spotted it first over at Running a Hospital, and it’s based on Jeffrey Rauch’s column from the National Journal.
But wait, there’s more! After seeing the video, a physician friend pointed out that it was missing a critical point of disfunction. He then sent me this, which I begged him to allow me to post:
Booking Agent: Hello, NationalAir. How can I help you?
Customer: Yes, I’d like a flight from Boston to DC on February 3rd with Joseph Smith as the pilot.
Booking Agent: I’m sorry. Pilot Joe Smith is completely booked for the next 6 months. How about Pilot Jane Wallace?
Customer: I don’t know, my previous regional pilot recommended Pilot Joe Smith directly. Maybe you know my previous Pilot, Pilot Jeffery Jones? He and Pilot Smith trained together in Denver. Apparently, Pilot Smith is phenomenal on the Boston DC run. Be honest, is Jane Wallace a good pilot?
Booking Agent: Yes, Jane is great! She’s new to our airline, but she comes highly recommended. She graduated from the Air Force Academy with honors. She’s written several books on combat flight techniques and has studied passenger usage of air sick bags during high G evasive maneuvers induced by terrorist surface to air attacks.
Customer: Okay……great. What is her track record on the Boston to DC flight?
Booking Agent: I’m sorry, we don’t release that information.
Customer: Okay, how about stats of NationalAir flying from Boston to DC?
Booking Agent: We’re having discussions about that internally. I will tell you that 6 out of 10 NationalAir frequent fliers choose NationalAir when flying on the East Coast on Tuesday between 8pm-12am in December (p<.001). We also have great customer satisfaction for our inflight movie selection on transcontinental flights. That work was actually recently published in the International Journal of Travel Pilots. We also have more Air Force Academy trained pilots than any other airline on the East Coast. We're very proud of that.
Customer: Okay….that’s helpful. NationalAir certainly has a great reputation…I’m sure Pilot Wallace is more than capable of flying from Boston to DC. Book me for her please.
Booking Agent: Great, you won’t be disappointed. She has an opening in late April……