When we board an airplane today, the odds of reaching our destinations without incident or harm are quite reassuring … a 99.996 percent chance of arriving safe and sound. The odds, however, didn't always lean so heavily in passengers' favor.

Some 30 years ago, the skies may have been friendly, but public perception considered them to be unsafe. Catastrophic plane crashes plagued major carriers and airports across the country, particularly in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit. In 80 percent of these cases, the cause of the accidents was found to be errors in communication (in everyday terms) or loss of situational awareness (in aviation-speak).

During the 1980s, the aviation industry revolutionized itself by implementing an industry-wide communication, teamwork, and leadership system, called "Crew Resource Management" or CRM. The goal was to lower the chances of human error and traumatic problems during airtime.

Flight crews have been using CRM for over two decades now, and it's working. Today, air travel is viewed as a "routine" mode of transportation that's safe and exact.

The success of CRM led planning experts to consider if the training and safety tools from aviation could be woven into other high-risk domains where error and/or accident could lead to potentially catastrophic consequences. Specifically, they zeroed in on healthcare where an estimated 98,000 patients die each year due to hospital errors.

The result was LifeWings Partners LLC -- a team of physicians, nurses, pilots, astronauts, physician executives, and insurance experts who pioneered an innovative approach that adapted the same teamwork training concepts that have made commercial aviation so safe, reliable, and efficient to hospital-based healthcare. Since its founding in 2005, it has improved the safety, quality, and profitability of over 70 healthcare clients, representing over 30,000 physicians, nurses, support staffs, and administrators.

That top-gun approach to safety is now in place at the Family Birthing Center of Provena St. Mary's Hospital in Kankakee. In fact, it's part of the flight safety plan of checklists and briefings that the Provena Health system has implemented across the obstetrics departments at all six of its hospitals.

"LifeWings provided us with the behaviors and skills that we needed to create lasting change. The basis of these tools is communication to guarantee that everyone -- from the surgeon to the anesthesiologist to the scrub nurse -- is on the same page every time and every day," notes Linda S. Jones, RN, BSN, Director of Women and Children Services, Provena St. Mary's Hospital.

"The tools are in place like never before to ensure that everyone is talking. We have true and absolute teamwork that focuses on safety, efficiency, and the best possible outcomes."

Is CRM working for healthcare? Roger. Six months after the Provena Health hospitals implemented the LifeWings methodology, miscommunication reports were already down 50 percent. "Each day, we see firsthand how using aviation's best practices improves patient safety and quality of care," Jones emphasized.

The LifeWings Safety System includes an ongoing mix of four steps. It begins with Leadership Development and involved Jones, six charge nurses, two obstetricians, and an administrator learning how to incorporate and sustain the program's cultural change to their specific environment. "We caught the vision," Jones explained.

This stage included a comprehensive on-site observation of practices and a full-risk assessment by a LifeWings trainer as well.

During the Skills-Based Training step, the steering committee learned CRM to enable them to teach team-based communication skills to the department's 24 registered nurses. These skills are designed to empower them to "see it, say it, fix it" on a daily basis. The plan includes pre-procedure checklists to ensure that all supplies and required personnel are ready and prepared for the procedure and time-outs to identify verbally all of the individuals in the room and their roles.

Next came the "hardwiring" or weaving of these practices into the fabric of daily procedures. "We had to hardwire these tools into our daily care practices," Jones noted.

The final step focuses on measurement of outcomes and continues with ongoing training. "The LifeWings Safety System is a lifelong program. We will always be working to keep patient safety in the forefront, and we will never waver on or compromise this principle. LifeWings guarantees that we have a flight plan to stay on course."

To continue the success seen to date, Provena Health established an alliance with LifeWings that will enable Provena St. Mary's Hospital to bring these improvement techniques and resources in patient safety and quality to each of its departments throughout this year.

"Everyone is on board and supports the LifeWings program. The entire Provena St. Mary's Hospital team of physicians, nurses, and professional support staffs want to continue to find ways to reduce patient errors, to improve quality care, and to ensure the positive outcomes that we are known for," Jones concluded.

Stephen Harden, a former U.S. Navy Top Gun instructor and commercial airline pilot, founded LifeWings in 2005. The firm specializes in applying aviation-based training and safety tools to help healthcare facilities improve patient safety and reduce costs. He says, "Aviation and medicine both rely on teamwork for efficiency and safety."