planeBecause I spent nearly 30 years as a flight attendant for a major airline, and I now work for a not-for-profit foundation devoted to improving health care for older people, I often find myself comparing airlines and hospitals.

After someone close to me experienced major problems in a hospital over a weekend stay, it made me think about the difference between airlines and hospitals when it comes to which days you are using the services. It also made me think about safety and how the different industries learn from their mistakes. This is especially concerning for older adults, who are the major users of hospitals where they are at a greater risk of harm than younger people.

Airlines, as we all know, are 24/7, 365 operations. All employees are aware of this before they apply for the job, and are not surprised when called upon to work weekends and holidays. Seniority prevails, and the longer one is around, the better one’s schedule becomes. But by and large, it is not a detriment for passengers to fly on weekends (although flights may be more crowded on Fridays and Sundays). And it will not be unusual to find seasoned flight crews in the cockpit on weekends as well as weekdays.

Hospitals, on the other hand, operate differently on weekends, as I saw firsthand. Many doctors and other crucial staff work only on weekdays. Patient care can and sometimes does become seriously compromised on Saturdays and Sundays.

It took me just three seconds to find a recent online article from TIME dealing with this very subject: “Why It’s More Deadly to Get Sick at Night Or On Weekends,” which discusses the latest review of evidence published by the Mayo Clinic, showing that heart attack patients receiving care on weekends and nights have higher mortality rates. In absolute terms, the risk of death after weekend surgery or hospitalization is very small. Still, I wonder how hospitals review their safety failings and whether there’s something to be learned from airlines.

Marcia and Friends Hartford Foundation Executive Assistant Marcia Brown (center) with friends. In today's post, she shares insights from her previous career in the airline industry.

For example, the FAA requires all U.S. airlines to study each “hull loss” (meaning that the aircraft has either been destroyed or has been damaged beyond repair) and all other aviation accidents--no matter which airline was involved. Videos of these incidents are shown at a mandatory annual safety review (recurrent emergency training), so that everyone can learn from the positive and negative aspects of each airline accident. Flight and cabin crews and mechanics of all airlines watch the videos and hear the resulting commentary regarding each accident that took place during the previous year—to learn from them. Airlines must be doing something right. Even though airline crashes stick in our memory, they are extremely rare and fatalities even more so.

I know hospitals are supposed to analyze where they went wrong and learn from their mistakes. And I’m glad hospitals must publicly report some measures of quality on Medicare's Hospital Compare, but do they do enough to share the good and the bad with all hospital staff—and with other hospitals? It seems they should if we want to prevent medical errors and death, and have safety records that match the airline industry.