Page 6 - Volume 14 Number 10

After landing at the destination, the LifeSave King Air can pull up to the company’s ground units waiting to transfer the patient to the hospital. (Credit: LifeSave Transport)
a complete emergency transport system operating as a medical company first that is focused on patient care and safety with a state-of-the-art communications system, patient-centered billing division and maintenance facility.
Today, LifeSave operates 13 King Airs (several C90s, a C90-1, several C90Bs and a B200), as well as Bell 206 and 407 helicopters. It has bases in 15 locations in Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and Hawaii. The company also operates ambulances for patient transfers from the fixed-wing aircraft to the hospital.
The transmission of information is of the utmost importance in emergency medicine as it is in aviation, and LifeSave prides itself on informed and decisive exchanges. To this end, all the company’s actions derive from its communication center. Here, inbound calls originate from either medical professionals at the hospital or in the field. The skilled team gathers information related to a patient’s need for transport and helps guide the journey from point of origin, to LifeSave pickup, and all the way to drop-off at the tertiary care facility.
Through their experience in the communication center guiding hospitals and other facilities, Dr. Sellberg saw the need to further ideate what type of transport is appropriate in certain scenarios. Making the decision between calling a ground, rotor or fixed-wing asset for a heart attack patient who is 120 miles away but in stable condition can be a tough decision even for the most experienced providers. Drs. Sellberg and Watson developed a proprietary software as a guidance tool for these complex situations.
The Mission ControlTM software assists the sending facility in choosing the appropriate transport method. This can be a life or death decision as well as the difference
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between a financially successful or unsuccessful mission. Once the method of transport is identified, the sending and receiving facilities are then directly linked to the LifeSave team to improve care throughout the transport process.
The company’s overall operations derive from the founders’ vision and backgrounds. Dr. Sellberg said they view LifeSave as “a healthcare-focused company with aviation assets,” that is “designed to provide critical care solutions when a patient needs it the most.”
Why King Airs?
The low-margin world of emergency air transport make the King Air an ideal platform. The family of turboprop’s durability, relatively low operating costs, and availability of parts are a natural fit for many medical transport operators.
All things considered – weight capacity, speed, endurance, operational ease – the King Air is an almost perfect candidate for the rigors and unique mission profile of emergency air medical transport.
Two important aspects of the aircraft are its range and endurance profiles, which tie in directly to the company’s operations in the Midwest and Hawaii, which may seem as a “random” location to some, Dr. Sellberg notes. “Hawaii is surprising in how similar it is to the Midwest, in terms of the distribution of specialty medical resources and the distances between them, so it was a natural expansion for us.” For instance, Hilo (PHTO) to trauma care in Honolulu (PHNL) is within four nautical miles of the same trip from Liberal (KLBL) in the western part of the state to Wichita (KAAO), a major medical hub for Kansas.
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OCTOBER 2020