[foobarchu]

I've always wondered if the problem might be in the handoff procedures. Those studies about mortality in the event of a handoff always make it sound like obviously handoffs are an inherently dangerous thing, but perhaps the modern way of doing them is just poorly implemented? It feels extremely unlikely to me that absurdly long hours are the only solution.

[snowwrestler]

There's just no way efficient way to capture, log, and communicate every single little detail a doctor observes while diagnosing and setting treatment for a patient. First impressions are often wrong, and little details can become significant later. Early treatment might be designed not only to address symptoms but to exclude other diagnoses.

In a plane in level controlled flight, there is very little to hand off between two type-rated pilots. Both folks understand the machine, and the machine is working the way it is supposed to. Humans work the same way! Parents "hand off" their healthy kids to schools or babysitters or relatives every day.

But imagine a plane that is in the process of crashing; it's in a dive, controls are not responding as expected, one of the engines keeps turning off. A pilot is fighting to regain control... how comfy are you with THAT pilot handing off the aircraft to another pilot in the middle of that situation?

It's a little silly as an analogy, since plane crashes tend to be resolved pretty quickly one or the other. But conceptually, just imagine a plane that is in the process of maybe crashing for 12 hours. There's a good argument for a pilot to just see that through instead of "clocking out" at 8 hours.

[verelo]

I think this is a rational question to ask! Often people will jump to conclusions "handoffs cause errors", and while errors are a symptom of handoffs executed poorly, it seems uncommon for people to often ask for improvements to these processes.