Air Providers Join Resources in New Alliance

In a bid to further improve their levels of patient care, the not-for-profit air ambulance programs Life Flight Network and Life Link III are forming a strategic alliance. Life Flight Network operates 25 bases across Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. Life Link III operates 10 bases across Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

Under this arrangement both programs will share knowledge on best practices, process improvement, quality initiatives, and safety.

“Both of our air ambulance programs are dedicated to serving patients, with very strong reputations for quality and safety,” says Life Flight Network’s interim CEO, Ben Clayton. “By leveraging each other’s expertise, we both can continue to get better and make sure patients are getting the help they need.”

A Logical Match

The move to a formal alliance builds upon a long-running collaborative relationship between the organizations. It is a logical match: Although their territories are far apart, Life Flight Network and Life Link III have much in common. They are both independent, hospital-owned consortiums that fly AgustaWestland/Leonardo AW119Kx “Koala” helicopters and use much of the same medical equipment aloft. As well, the large territories covered by Life Flight Network and Life Link III pose similar environmental and operational challenges, so there are many “lessons learned” for the partners to share.

Under the terms of the alliance, executives from Life Flight Network and Life Link III now hold weekly online meetings. “We cover everything from internal issues such as staffing and technology to the sheer volume of calls for patient transport,” says Josh Howell, Life Link III’s CEO. “We are also looking at larger concerns such as the end-to-end patient experience beginning at the time they fall ill or become injured throughout their transport to a hospital, inpatient treatment, discharge, and rehabilitation, if it is called for. We’re looking at this with an eye to creating better outcomes for our patients, as we are on issues such as reducing hospital-acquired infections and problems like that.”

Through their alliance Life Flight Network and Life Link III hope to make a qualitative contribution to patient care in America. 

“We believe that by working together on these issues and sharing knowledge, we’re going to help each other advance our level of medical service, really driving value to patients and hospitals in the process,” Clayton says. “At the very least, when hospitals receive patients from our air ambulance crews, they will receive them in better condition due to our many quality improvements.”

Looking ahead, leaders of the Life Flight Network/Life Link III alliance hope to blaze a trail for other air medical services, encouraging them to team up and share knowledge across jurisdictions. The alliance refers to this concept as a “consortium of consortiums”—one that would bring together health systems to collaborate and jointly improve access to critical care transport and lifesaving resources.

These are lofty goals, and it’s early in the process. Having only signed their letter of intent to form the alliance on December 8, 2021, Life Flight Network and Life Link III are still hammering out the details of their regular meetings and the topics they both want to cover.

“We want to establish a few key directions for the first year, and then we’ll grow from there,” says Clayton. 

“We’re starting to make the right introductions to the right people to take a look at priority opportunities for improvements in areas both programs have in common,” Howell adds. “I’m thrilled about the launch of this not-for-profit air medical alliance that will strengthen both programs and deepen our commitment to serving our employees, our patients, and our communities even better in the future.” 

James Careless is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to EMS World.