The U.S. Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) was part of an extensive safety review of the Military Health System by the U.S. Secretary of Defense. During this review, although findings showed mostly average performance across the AFMS compared to similar civilian facilities, the Secretary determined that the average was not sufficient for active duty, retired, and dependent stakeholders. Patients deserved better care—higher reliability, zero preventable harm, and safer, patient-centered outcomes.

Synensys provided direction, strategy, know-how, and highly skilled staff to reduce preventable patient harm by accelerating safety culture behavior changes, including high-reliability training and coaching. Using robust patient safety and quality data, our team helped AFMS facilities increase reliability through continuous process improvement.

AFMS has implemented and sustained proactive patient safety behaviors and high-reliability training, which has resulted in a 70% reduction in preventable harm events in 5 years.