What is the FFL mission Statement?

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

How long has the FFL program been around?

MKE:     Started 01/1984

NI:         Started 05/1987

How many total flights has the program done?

Over 24,000

When and why was the NI program started?

Started May 1987.  Increase in patient transports coming to the Milwaukee area from the Northern Illinois region. Based in McHenry with the help of interested parties at the Northern Illinois Medical Center.

What is the safety record for MKE?  What is the safety record for NI?

Over 24,000 accident free missions within the program.  There has never been an accident since program inception at either site.

Who is responsible for establishment of the program?

Barbara Hess, RN, FFL’s first program director and Dr. Joseph Darin were very instrumental in the program’s development and initiation.

Is the program for profit or not for profit? 

Not for profit program.

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

How many people employed in the organization? 

75

How are flights determined?

On call, first come first serve.  Caller requests helicopter to a scene or hospital for transport. If the helicopter is en route to a hospital, with approval from the referring hospital, it may be diverted to 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.

Who can call for the helicopter?

Fire, EMS, law enforcement, hospitals, and any other personnel as determined by local and regional protocols

Explain call in procedure, prep procedure (standby), aircraft and crew prep time:

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

Who is on the aircraft during a flight?

Standard Flight Crew in MKE:  pilot, flight nurse and flight physician or flight paramedic

Standard Flight Crew in NI: pilot, flight nurse and flight paramedic

*May include specialty teams:  Children’s, Transplant, or a perfusionist.

*May include a ride-a-long

What are Clinical Observation Participants?

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

How does FFL interact with area rescue squads? Private ambulance?  Referring and receiving hospitals?

RESCUE: FFL provides safety inservices as well as other requested continuing education including run/case reviews. FFL responds to the requests of EMS/Fire/Law Enforcement by responding directly to the scene of accidents at specified landing zones. Follow up calls, letters and transport surveys are completed after each transport.

PRIVATE AMBULANCES: FFL 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: FFL 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 letters are completed after each transport.

What types of aircrafts are flown? 

2 BK 117 twin engine helicopter with an average cruising speed of 140 mph

How much fuel does it carry?

Maximum capacity is 188 gallons of Jet A fuel.

Owned or leased?

Owned

Who is responsible for maintenance?

Full time mechanic at each site dedicated to aircraft maintenance 365 days per year with 24 hour availability. A back up mechanic covers in addition for both sites.  All mechanics are factory certified.

How often is maintenance performed?

Daily check 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.

What is the background for crewmembers?

MD’s: Third year Emergency Medicine residents or staff physicians board eligible or board certified in Emergency Medicine

RN’s:  Minimum five years critical care experience. Certified in ACLS, PALS, PHTLS/BTLS, NRP, TNS

Paramedics: Minimum five years active EMS experience as a paramedic. Certified in ACLS, PALS, NRP, PHTLS/BTLS

Pilots: Minimum 2000 hours flight time in helicopter although currently have > 3500 hours.

Why is the helicopter a necessary tool in providing emergency medical care?

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.

How does helicopter transfer differ from that of an ambulance?

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 pt to the specialty.

What is FFL service area?

225 mile radius of the base hospitals in MKE and NI.

What is the farthest the helicopter has traveled?

Both aircraft have traveled as far north as the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and as far south as central Illinois.

Does FFL respond to scenes or just inter-hospital flights?

Both aircraft have the capability of responding directly to accident scenes as well as performing inter-hospital flights.

What is a scene call? What is involved and how is it different from hospital transports?

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 landing. 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.

What is CAMTS certification? How is it earned? When was it earned?

Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems is and 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 FFL in 1996 and again re-accredited in 1999, 2002, and 2005.

How does FFL recognize others in pre-hospital care?

A “Scene Call of the Year” is awarded annually to a full-time as well as a combination department in both IL and WI.

Does the age of patient require a different crew? (peds, adult)

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.

Any specialty equipment or personnel for different cases?

Isolette, Intra-aortic balloon pump, ventricular assist device, external temporary pacemaker are available upon request for any flight. Specialty personnel include pediatric transport team, cardiovascular personnel (perfusionist), transplant team, specialty physicians.

How often does crew train? What aspects?

On-going education: informal and formal monthly

Monthly crew meetings include flight/case review as well as other required topics.

Semi annual safety training every 6 months, regarding the helicopter operation and emergency procedures.

Annual training on altitude physiology, stress and survival training.

How are credentials monitored?

Reviewed by CFN for currency.

How is Quality Assurance monitored?

A QA/QI committee meets monthly at each site. Each flight is reviewed by peers for appropriateness and adherence to program standard of care. Some key areas of operation are evaluated for only some months of the year (i.e., response times, flight following, etc). 90% 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 committee which includes the medical director and chief flight nurse. Appropriate action is initiated and monitored for improvement.