Donors - LifeFlight of Maine

2
Families are the true faces of LifeFlight LifeFlight strengthens Maine’s emergency care family
At LifeFlight, we often meet people on the
worst day of their life. It’s the nature of what
we do.
In simple terms, it’s our job to give a patient
that day back. To reset.
Last May we held our first celebration of
life for children who have been LifeFlight patients. The event was
made possible through the gracious support of the Owls Head
Transportation Museum, Bangor Savings Bank, Verizon Wireless
and businesses throughout Maine. The ages of the children varied.
In one case, a LifeFlight toddler, now years on, was contemplating
graduation. As we met each family, and families met each
other, we were overcome by how profound that original day of
critical injury or illness was for each patient’s family.
And while at the center of our efforts is a patient, we know that
in every critical illness or injury there is more than the patient
who experiences a life-changing event. At the first ring of 9-1-1,
the emergency care team instantly becomes a giant family in a
complex, time-critical choreography crossing Maine.
A LifeFlight patient brings together communications specialists;
law enforcement; fire/rescue services; EMTs and paramedics;
emergency, operating room and intensive care nurses; physician
assistants; nurse practitioners; respiratory therapists; lab and
radiology technicians; support staff; and emergency and specialist
physicians. It is not uncommon for LifeFlight patients to have an
LifefLight foundation
This Annual Report is a publication of The LifeFlight Foundation, which provides fundraising
and public relations support to LifeFlight of Maine, the state’s only medical helicopter service.
The LifeFlight Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization, and all donations
are tax deductible. It is governed by an
elected board of trustees who represent
medical, business, legal and educational
fields throughout the state. LifeFlight also
aids the development, training and funding
of Maine’s major air medical needs, such
as trauma training statewide; construction
of helipads; and installation of weather
reporting, navigational and communications
systems across the state.
The Foundation’s office is located in the town
of Camden at 13 Main Street on the 2nd floor.
We welcome visitors anytime.
Baby Keira 2008
“instant” extended family of more than one hundred members—each
applying their special skills at the right moment on the side of the road,
in a hospital emergency department or in one of our trauma centers.
But each of us is a fleeting member of a patient’s family. It is the patient’s
intimate circle of friends and family that must accomplish the really
heavy lifting; to reset a day of tragedy for a brighter tomorrow. Everyone
that surrounds a patient—loved ones, family, friends, neighbors and
co-workers—becomes an extension of the emergency care team in
resetting a life-altering day. These are the true faces of LifeFlight.
The stories our patients and their families share bring us to work every
day. For all of us in emergency care, we remember when we were able to
give that day back to a patient. In this annual report we celebrate some
of these stories—the births of new children, graduations, weddings, return
to work, new careers and lifetimes of memories. Most importantly, as
in a family album the good memories become brighter and the difficult
memories and days fade away.
As a nonprofit charity, LifeFlight truly is “of Maine” and we offer our deep
appreciation to all of our supporters and to all of our partners in emergency
care.
Thomas Judge, CCT-P
Executive Director
LifeFlight of Maine and The LifeFlight Foundation
LifefLight of Maine
LifeFlight of Maine is a nonprofit
statewide critical care medical helicopter
service jointly owned by Eastern Maine
Healthcare Systems and Central Maine
Healthcare Corporation. LifeFlight’s two
helicopters, operated by Era Helicopters
and based at Eastern Maine Medical
Center in Bangor and Central Maine
Medical Center in Lewiston, cover the
entire state and offshore islands. LifeFlight
complements and supports the work
of local EMS and hospital personnel
in caring for the critically ill or injured.
LifeFlight is fully accredited by the
Commission on Accreditation of Medical
Transport Systems.
The Central Maine Healthcare Family is proud to be a parent of
LifeFlight—a unique healthcare provider, touching every corner of
Maine. LifeFlight is a complex endeavor and, like Maine’s hospitals,
the service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. While media
stories highlight LifeFlight at accident scenes, more than 80% of
LifeFlight patients are transported from one hospital to another.
At a moment’s notice, the LifeFlight crew joins together with physicians,
nurses and care teams in Maine’s emergency departments
and intensive care units, effectively becoming part of that hospital
and the communities they serve.
Helipads are quite literally the doors to our hospitals. Minutes
matter for critically ill and injured patients. Creating a seamless
continuum of care from the first moment of injury until arrival
in one of our major trauma and specialist centers is essential to
achieve good outcomes for patients.
We are proud that our teams, overseen by LifeFlight’s medical
directors and clinical practice committee physicians (see page 20),
provide a system of high quality care joining all of Maine’s hospitals.
In 2011, LifeFlight was fully re-accredited by the Commission
for the Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) with
special commendations for medical oversight, quality and, most
importantly, patient safety. We were pleased the Commission
1500
1200
900
600
300
0
acknowledged that LifeFlight’s “activities nationally
drive policy and industry conversations
regarding safety and quality.”
While we are in an enormously challenging
time in healthcare, the need for LifeFlight’s services
continues to grow. LifeFlight sees patients
of every age and medical condition (see page 10) and the complexity of
the patients we care for continues to increase. Each year, we add new
therapies and additional medical equipment like portable laboratories,
cardiac balloon pumps and special transport isolettes for newborns.
In 2011, on average, a LifeFlight team was called upon every six hours
for a patient needing critical care. Those transports required LifeFlight’s
helicopters to fly the equivalent of 7.5 times around the earth. In the year
ahead, with your support of the LifeFlight Foundation, we are working
to add a fixed wing aircraft which will better enable all weather and long
distance operations for hospital to hospital transports. Your support
helps assure that, at a moment’s notice, LifeFlight will be there for every
family in Maine.
Peter Chalke, Chair
LifeFlight of Maine Management Committee
number of Patients per fiscal Year
(ground and air)
3