Airlift Northwest

Airlift Northwest Membership protects you and members of your household from the unexpected costs of air transport during a medical emergency. When you or a family member are seriously ill or injured, the attending physician or emergency response team may determine that air medical transport is needed. In those cases, you may request Airlift Northwest.

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We have invested in one of the most highly trained and skilled staff in the industry, and they’re continually engaged in outreach efforts to strengthen the communities we serve—including yours. We offer ongoing training for local EMS teams, fire departments, hospitals, clinics and the general public through continuing education courses, landing zone trainings and participation in community events.

Contact our Business Development Director Steve LeMay: J80lemay@uw.edu

Calling us engages professionals with the latest technology to help save lives when timing is crucial. We connect you to assets from our network of bases. Our communications center is plugged into the National Weather Service and state communications at the highest levels. We close the loop by following up to update you on your patient’s condition and our ETA. We are a constant partner and resource throughout the transport process.

Learn more about our new mobile and desktop app that activates us with the touch of a button: 206-521-1599 or bacons@uw.edu.

Qualifications for flight nursing include five years’ experience in critical care or emergency room care of adults or pediatric patients (which includes newborns). Many of our nurses continue to actively work in these environments as well. The cumulative experience on each flight can equal up to 50 years of combined nursing experience.

Each flight nurse holds a certificate in their area of expertise; this includes certifications in pediatric critical care, adult critical care and/or neonatal critical care.

Each Airlift Northwest flight nurse receives approximately 120 hours of ongoing education every year, and maintains these credentials at a minimum:

• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
• Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP)
• Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses (ATCN)
• Basic Life Support (BLS)

Ongoing training includes:

• Clinical rotations in Harborview Medical Center and/or Seattle Children’s
• Competency days to maintain current knowledge of evidence-based medical procedures and policies
• Quarterly training to maintain an advanced skills set associated with critical care air transport
• Survival days rotating in the winter/fall/summer
• Water Safety Day, taught by experts such as Coast Guard personnel
• Egress training
• Safety Day – Air Medical Resource Management (AMRM) and peer support
• Specialized training with simulation
• Training examples: Simulated training on newborns, patients on life support, pregnant women and pediatric scenarios

Current scope of care for our regular RN and RN configuration includes transporting patients older than 30 days with various medical problems, traumatic injuries and neurological problems. Transport personnel have been trained in managing patients with multiple infusions, managing invasive hemodynamic monitoring, managing patients with chest tubes, central lines, trained in performing RSI and surgical airways, continuous temperature monitoring during transport and ventilated patients. 

All of our aircrafts carry PRBCs and Plasma for use to our patients. All transport personnel receive annual competency check offs on all equipment that we use and all procedures that is in our policies. Medical directors are actively involved in the annual check offs. 

For patients under 30 days, they will be triaged accordingly and if isolette transport is required, we have 2 pediatric RNs that have extra training and experience to complete those transports. 

We currently have one base where the RNs has been through specialty training to transport IABPs. For Impellas and IABPs for other bases, we utilize a hospital RN from with our healthcare system that have gone through aircraft safety check off to accompany our normal 2 RN crew to manage the Impella and IABP during transport.

We’re ready for anything—with the right equipment, technology and personnel for the moment, and the patient. We partner with Bloodworks Northwest and Harborview Medical Center to carry packed red blood cells and liquid plasma on every flight, so we can provide in-flight transfusions without depleting your local blood bank. This has been proven to save lives and benefit patient outcomes.

We partner with hospitals across Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Our UW Medicine affiliation strengthens our care, while at the same time we maintain good relationships with all hospitals in our region. We fly wherever first responders and care providers decide the patient needs to go for care.