Extract:
Lifewings
What do pilots, astronauts, physicians, and risk managers have in common? In this case, they are all part of an organization based in Memphis, Tennessee, called Lifewings Partners. This unusual group focuses on finding ways to eliminate mistakes and accidents in medical settings within the United States. Lifewings Partners emphasizes the need for a watchdog in various medical settings.
According to the Institute of Health, approximately 98,000 patients die each year in U.S. health care settings due to nothing more than medical error. Examples of medical errors include the man who had the wrong testicle removed in a Los Angeles hospital, a young boy who went in for a typical hernia surgery and ended up with brain damage from the anesthesia, and a hospital in Rhode Island that performed brain surgery on the wrong side of the brain, three times on three different patients in less than a year.
In addition to making internal changes in medical settings by changing procedures and establishing checklists, Lifewings Partners also works to educate patients on safety before they even enter the hospital. The company suggests that all consumers do the following: go online to obtain public information on a hospital’s safety, talk to their doctors to see what safety standards are in place already, and ask professionals about which facilities tend to have the best safety records. Founder Steve Harden says, “Just because a hospital has a great reputation for cutting-edge medicine doesn’t necessarily mean the hospital is the safest place to go for routine procedures.” After all, some mistakes are too big and too irrevocable to risk.
What is the main idea of the passage?
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A
Medical mistakes are made in health centers every day.
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B
Lifewings Partners is made up of an eclectic mix of people.
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C
Lifewings Partners is working hard to prevent medical errors.
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D
Consumers should talk to their doctors about hospital safety.
The main idea is that Lifewings Partners is working hard to prevent medical errors, capturing the organization's dual approach of system changes and patient education.
A) Medical mistakes are made in health centers every day.
Too narrow, while error prevalence is established contextually, it serves as problem setup rather than the passage's focus on solutions.
B) Lifewings Partners is made up of an eclectic mix of people.
Too narrow, opening mentions diverse membership (pilots, astronauts, physicians) only to establish credibility; the passage focuses on their shared mission, not demographic composition.
C) Lifewings Partners is working hard to prevent medical errors.
Directly supported by comprehensive description of prevention strategies: internal changes (procedure modifications, checklists), patient education (hospital research, safety discussions), and founder's safety advocacy, all unified under error prevention mission.
D) Consumers should talk to their doctors about hospital safety.
Too narrow, represents one specific patient education recommendation among multiple strategies, not the organization's comprehensive mission.
Conclusion
Main ideas must encompass a passage's comprehensive focus, not isolated details or contextual setup. Option C successfully integrates Lifewings' internal system changes with external patient education under the unifying theme of proactive error prevention.