The winner of the 2008 Executive Award for Excellence is COL William Beninati, Commander, 59th Medical Operations Group,Wilford Hall Medical Center in Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Colonel (Dr.) Beninati has distinguished himself the past 20 years as a visionary Air Force Medical Service leader and driving force behind expeditionary aeromedical capabilities development, revolutionizing war and peace time patient care.

COL Beninati has been integrally involved in the establishment and promulgation of the Critical Care Aeromedical Transport Team (CCATT) since he was a fellow in Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine. His pioneering efforts enabled cutting edge changes in aeromedical evacuation doctrine, allowing transport of patients whose injuries are still evolving, directly contributing to a 14 percent reduction in mortality.


COL Beninati has disseminated operational medicine improvements throughout the Department of Defense and to our allies. While assigned to the University of Maryland's Baltimore Shock Trauma Center staff, he commanded the Coalition for Sustainment of Trauma Readiness Skills (C-STARS) program that provides refresher training in shock trauma skills for deploying physicians, nurses and technicians. Later, he was one of four individuals who developed and established the International and Aeromedical Evacuation Critical Care Transport Course and personally deployed throughout Latin America and Asia to assist countries in developing systems to transport multiple critically ill patients.

Under COL Beninati's leadership, process improvement methodologies became an integral part of CCATT, including establishment of a CCATT database within the Joint Theater Trauma Registry and application of clinical practice guidelines, resulting in improvements in deployed environments and significant changes in the management of casualties across the evacuation chain.

COL Beninati currently commands a 1,850-member organization at Wilford Medical Center, with a $90 million budget. As an organizational leader, he models the highest professional standards, inspiring others through his clinical excellence and advocacy for Air Force Medical Service competencies.

About AHA
The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the improvement of health in their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which includes more than 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, and 38,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends.

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