FAQs

Flight For Life will provide safe, efficient, high quality, customer oriented patient care, transportation, and education.

• The Waukesha/Milwaukee base started in January of 1984.
• The McHenry base started in May of 1987.
• The Fond du Lac base started in August of 2008.

Over 28,000

It was started in May, 1987 due to an increase in patient transports coming to the Milwaukee area from the Northern Illinois region. It was based in McHenry with the help of interested parties at the Northern Illinois Medical Center, now known as Centegra Hospital - McHenry.

Over 28,000 accident free missions within the system. There has never been an accident since the program inception at any site.

Barbara Hess, RN, Flight For Life's first program director and Dr. Joseph Darin were very instrumental in the transport system's development and initiation.

Flight For Life is a not for profit organization.

The IRS code specifies it exempt from income taxes including tax on purchases. Any and all revenue generated must be used to promote the organization's exempt function. Activities of the organization may not be used for private gain.

About 90

On call, first come first served. Caller requests a helicopter to a scene or hospital for transport. If the helicopter is enroute to a hospital, with approval from the referring hospital, it may be diverted to a scene. A patient may be transported to and from any hospital as long as the final destination is an equal or higher level of care.

Fire, EMS, law enforcement, hospitals, and any other personnel as determined by local and regional protocols can call for a helicopter.

• Requesting agency (EMS, law enforcement, fire, hospital) calls into Flight For Life's Communication Center
• Calls are received as either standby (delayed liftoff) or go (immediate liftoff)
• The crew prepares during stand time by checking weather, finding scene or hospital on a map, obtaining necessary supplies, equipment, preparing specialty teams or necessary patient information.

• Standard flight crew in Waukesha/Milwaukee: pilot, flight nurse, and flight physician or flight paramedic*
• Standard flight crew in McHenry and Fond du Lac: pilot, flight nurse and flight paramedic*

*May include specialty teams: Children's, Transplant or a perfusionist
*May include a Clinical Observation Participant

Health care providers (MD, DO, RN, RT, EMT-P, EMT-I, EMT-B), law enforcement and dispatch personnnel, and firefighters who have attended a Flight For Life safety inservice (educational program). The experience is observational only.

• RESCUE: Flight For Life provides safety inservices as well as other requested continuing education including run/case reviews. Flight For Life responds to the requests of EMS/fire/law enforcement by responding directly to the scene of accidents at specified landing zones. Follow up calls, and transport surveys are completed after each transport.

• PRIVATE AMBULANCES: Flight For Life provides safety inservices as well as other requested continuing education including run/case reviews. The private ambulances provide ground transportation for the flight crew in the event the helicopter is not able to fly due to weather or extended maintenance issues.

• HOSPITALS: Flight For Life provides safety inservices as well as other requested continuing education including case reviews. A rapport often develops between some hospitals and flight crews due to frequent transports into or out of a facility. Follow up calls and transport surveys are completed after each transport.

Two EC145 and one BK117 twin engine helicopters with an average cruising speed of 140 mph

Maximum capacity is 188 gallons of Jet A fuel.

Owned

A full time mechanic at each site is dedicated to aircraft maintenance 365 days per year with 24 hour availability. In addition, the Program Maintenance Manager oversees maintenance at all three sites. All mechanics are factory certified.

Daily checks are made with preventative maintenance scheduled when due. Unscheduled maintenance is completed as efficiently as possible to minimize out-of-service time. All components are inspected, overhauled, or replaced based on specified time limits.

• RNs: Minimum five years critical care experience. Certifed in ACLS, PALS, PHTLS/BTLS, NRP, TNS/TNCC.
• Paramedics: Minimum five years active EMS experience as a paramedic. Certified in ACLS, PALS, PHTLS/BTLS, NRP.
• MDs: Waukesha/Milwaukee base only, when scheduled, on selected shifts. Second or third year residents currently participating in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Medical College of Wisconsin.
• Pilots: Minimum of 2,000 hours of flight time in a helicopter although most currently have more than 3,500 hours.

The time of transport by ground to the most appropriate facility poses a threat to survival and optimal patient outcome. The helicopter may provide rapid and timely transport to the most appropriate facility while reducing out-of-hospital time for the patient. Advanced medical procedures similar to those performed in an Emergency Department are performed in the aircraft by the medical crew.

• Usually less room (work area) inside
• Greater weight restrictions
• Helicopter must have a larger area to land in (as opposed to driving into)
• More rapid transport
• Helicopter carries more advanced equipment and a wider array of medications including blood
• Helicopter can bring the specialty of higher level of care to the patient (physician, specially trained nurses and paramedics, specialty transport teams) where an ambulance brings the patient to the specialty

A 225 mile radius of each Flight For Life base

Our aircraft have traveled as far north as the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and as far south as Central Illinois.

All aircraft have the capability of responding directly to accident scenes as well as performing interhospital flights.

The helicopter responds directly to an accident scene, landing on a highway, parking lot or field. It requires more coordination of ground personnel as well as high alert of flight crew to fly into an area that may not normally have aircraft landings. Crew must be constantly observing for obstacles while inbound (wires, trees, signs, blowing debris, other aircraft, etc). Traffic around the aircraft must be controlled by ground security (fire/EMS/law enforcement).

Hospital transports involve landing at a pre-approved helipad right at the hospital or very close by.

The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) is an independent accrediting organization that is called voluntarily by the air medical program requesting accreditation. A team of surveyors reviews all flight operations (both on paper and by site visit) for compliance to a set of standards that are above the minimum standard operating standards. Certification implies a high level of quality in the organization. The first certification was earned by Flight For Life in 1996 and again reaccredited in 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008.

A "Scene Call of the Year Award" is presented annually to a full-time as well as a combination department from each base.

Specialty team transports with a pediatric intensivist (resident), pediatric nurse practitioner, pediatric transport nurse, and/or respiratory therapist may be sent on any pediatric flight depending on patient age, diagnosis, and condition. In general, the full compliment of pediatric team members are sent for pediatric medical patients and neonates. The team may vary for trauma patients.

An isolette, intra-aortic balloon pump, ventricular assist device, or external temporary pacemaker is available upon request for any flight. Specialty personnel include: pediatric transport team, cardiovascular personnel (perfusionist), transplant team, or speciality physicians.

Ongoing education includes:

• Informal and formal monthly training
• Monthly crew meetings include flight/case review as well as other required topics
• Semi-annual safety training every six months, regarding the helicopter operation and emergency procedures
• Annual training on altitude physiology, stress, and survival training

Credentials are reviewed by the chief flight nurse for currency.

A QA/QI committee meets monthly at each site. Each flight is reviewed by peers for appropriateness and adherence to the organization's standard of care. Some key areas of operation are evaluated for only some months of the year (i.e. response times, flight following, etc).

Ninety percent compliance to standards is the minimum goal set. Those charts that fall out or those areas that do not meet the compliance percentage are reviewed by the committee which includes the medical director and chief flight nurse. Appropriate action is initiated and monitored for improvement.