Ever committed to providing high-quality medical care, Memorial Healthcare System has recently hired LifeWings Partners LLC to teach its surgeons, anesthesiologists, OR nurses, and support staff how to implement the same safety and efficiency measures that have made the nation’s commercial airline industry and military aviation more effective and reliable.

LifeWings is a group of physicians, nurses, fighter pilots, former NASA astronauts, airline captains, medical executives and insurance experts who have adapted – for use in healthcare – the same teamwork training concepts and safety tools that have made commercial aviation safer. The program has resulted in long-term improvements in patient safety and reduced medical errors for many organizations across the nation.

The LifeWings training program was formed based on a report released in 2000 by the Institute of Medicine that showed a need for better medical training to reduce preventable medical errors and fatalities. The report stated that nearly 98,000 deaths occurred in the U.S. that year due to errors that could have been prevented. In the LifeWings’ program, healthcare workers are taught better teamwork and communication skills based on standardization processes and checklists, with tools to measure results.