Life Flight Network Upgrades Helicopter Fleet and Celebrates 45 Years of Service

Remote Northwest communities surrounded by miles of diverse terrain—and located hours from top-level trauma centers—often face challenges accessing quality healthcare. And that’s why Life Flight Network, the Aurora, Oregon-headquartered air and ground emergency medical transport service, added a mix of 25 Bell 407 GXi and Bell 429 helicopters to its fleet, providing vital transportation to patients suffering trauma or experiencing other health-related emergencies that require immediate care.

“These new Bell aircraft will increase the overall standardization of our fleet, improving efficiencies and associated logistics,” says Natalie Hannah, Public Relations Specialist at Life Flight Network. Standardizing its fleet will reduce maintenance time, resulting in a faster return to service. Each helicopter is also equipped with state-of-the-art avionics to help pilots fly over challenging terrain, at night, or in poor weather conditions.

The newly upgraded fleet of 38 rotorcraft will support operations across their service area of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

“The increased endurance and range offered by these new aircraft means we can respond to more calls with fewer delays for refueling,” Hannah says.

In addition to its helicopter fleet, Life Flight Network also operates 12 fixed-wing Pilatus PC-12 NG aircraft that can transport patients over long distances. The PC-12 aircraft are the primary means of transport when inclement weather or distance prevents helicopters from flying. These aircraft and helicopters are equipped with advanced medical equipment and staffed by expertly trained medical professionals to ensure that patients receive the highest level of care during transport.

Navigating Treacherous Terrain

A key factor that makes Life Flight Network a valued service in the region is its ability to navigate over mountains and rugged coastline into remote communities—areas where traditional ambulance services would struggle to reach patients. More than 85 million Americans live in “rural locales where a helicopter is their only chance of reaching a trauma center within an hour or less,” according to the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS). When an ambulance is unable to transport someone fast enough, Life Flight Network can medevac critical patients from rural hospitals to Level One trauma centers to receive specialty care.

Specialty care resources, such as a cardiologist or neurologist, are more often found in metropolitan locations within Life Flight Network’s service area. A rural sending facility may not be equipped to provide the level of care that a patient requires. For example, if a patient suffers a heart attack in a rural community and is then taken to a local hospital for care and stabilization, that hospital will then need to transport the patient to a higher-level care facility with a cardiac specialist.

Life Flight Network is committed to safety. The organization has a rigorous safety program that includes regular training and ongoing education for its staff, as well as a robust maintenance program for its fleet. Additionally, Life Flight Network is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS), which is a testament to its commitment to providing exceptional patient care.

“Safety is the bedrock of our organization; it has a bearing on every decision we make,” explains Hannah. “The safety of our patients, healthcare partners, and employees is what matters most,”

Celebrating 45 Years of Service

Founded in 1978 as Emanuel Life Flight, Life Flight Network was the first hospital-based air ambulance program on the West Coast and only the fourth in the nation. This February marked 45 years of lifesaving service to their communities, a notable milestone as very few flight programs have withstood the test of time the way they have. Today’s Life Flight Network is a nonprofit air medical transport service currently employing nearly 900 people including over 400 clinicians comprised of flight nurses, flight paramedics, flight respiratory therapists, ground paramedics, and EMTs. Nurses and respiratory therapists typically have a background in hospital/ICU care while paramedics and EMTs generally have more first-response/field expertise. Life Flight Network also provides the region’s only Neonatal/Pediatric Specialty Transport Teams immediately available at strategic airports, providing an essential lifeline for hundreds of infants and children requiring specialty clinical services each year.

“We are often the only resource standing between whether a patient lives or dies and we take that responsibility seriously,” says Hannah. “We exist for one reason: to save lives and we accomplish this by bringing ICU-level care and lifesaving transport to seriously ill or injured patients from the scene of an emergency or from one hospital to another.” Their aircraft are equipped with the same state-of-the-art medical equipment found in a hospital intensive care unit to help skilled pilots and medical professionals provide the highest level of care to the patients they transport.

Air ambulance transportation can be expensive. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners estimates that it costs between $12,000 and $25,000 for an average 52-mile flight. A Life Flight Network membership can offset expenses. A $75 annual membership protects an entire household from out-of-pocket costs associated with their transport, including copays and deductibles. Membership dues and donations are used to support Life Flight Network and to replace aging aircraft and equipment so that they can reach more patients in need.

“We will continue to prioritize expanded community access to our services, bringing lifesaving care closer to the patients who need us,” Hannah says. “In a critical medical emergency, seconds count and we refuse to see lives lost to long wait times.