Emergency Pre-Hospital Care
"Saving Time, Saving Lives" is what we have been doing for 30 years. In cases of time dependent illness or injury, the rapid transport offerred by our critical care team often makes all the difference in the outcome of the patients we serve.
In order to ensure appropriate use of the helicopter, guidelines have been established for emergency personnel who are in a position to request our services. Characteristically, these are first responders such as local and State police, fire departments, or rescue squads. There are three major considerations when deciding to request a response from Life Flight:
-
Would the amount of time needed to transport the patient by ground to an appropriate facility pose a threat to the patient's survival?
-
Would weather and road conditions or other factors affecting ground transport seriously delay the patient's access to advanced life support?
-
Does the available ambulance unit have clinical skills and equipment needed to care for the patient during transport
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Office of EMS, has established these guidelines for the activation of air medcal services. Click here to read more.
The following is the minimum information needed at the time of the emergency request:
-
Agency name and callback number
-
Nature of the incident (accident, fall, medical)
-
Location of the landing zone if available
-
Radio frequency and PL (channel guard) of the vehicle/personnel securing the landing zone
Interfacility Critical Care Transport
The Life Flight team provides expert critical care transportation for patients who are already in hospitals, to tertiary care hospitals where they can receive more advanced treatment. Although many of our interfacility transports bring patients to the Umass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, we routinely transport patients to other tertiary and specialty care facilities throughout New England. All of our critical care transport nurses have considerable experience in the intensive care unit (ICU) environment. Some of our available technology includes:
-
Zoll Propaq MD multi-parameter monitor/defibrillator
-
Alaris Carefusion 3-channel infusion pump for medications
-
LTV1200 Mechanical Ventilator for ventilatory assistance
MDAccess Transfer Center (888) 334-4111
MD·Access is a program of UMassMemorial Medical Center designed to provide easy, one-call access for referring physicians for inpatient transfers, expedited scheduling of patient appointments and testing, and telephone consultations and clinical advice. MD·Access helps connect physicians in the community to the world-class tertiary and quarternary care available at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
UMass Memorial EMS Communications Center
UMass Memorial EMS also operates our EMS Communications Center, which is responsible for receiving calls for emergencies as well as critical care transport services. Our highly trained Communications Specialists are skilled in the use of Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), flight following, and customer service. We are also an authorized secondary public safety answering point in Massachusetts linked directly to the 9-1-1 call centers in Worcester and Shrewsbury. Our dispatchers use nationally recognized standards (Priority Dispatch EMD) for call receiving and triage and are trained to provide 9-1-1 callers with pre-arrival instructions.
Our technology includes:
-
Zoll RescueNet Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) with fully integrated Priority Dispatch EMD
-
Zetron Series 4000 radio console with Integrator RD consoles for the ultimate flexibility in communications across VHF, UHF, and 800mhz radio systems
-
Computer-based flight following, using SkyConnect satellite tracking and FleetEyes web-based GPS and mapping integration
-
Coming soon! Cassidian Vesta Pallas e911 telephone interface system with ORION MapStar
EMS Communications Specislists are all Massachusetts certified EMTs, and are further certified by Massachusetts State 911 Department as Emergency Telecommunicators, and by The National Academies of Emergency Medical Dispatch (NAEMD) in Medical Priority Dispatch EMD.
To Request Lifeflight call (800) 322-4354
Click here to learn more about how to prepare your patient for transport by air or ground..
