Staff for Life
In 1980, University Hospital trauma surgeon Frank Mitchell conducted a study that found that 40 percent of fatally injured trauma patients could have survived their wounds with more rapid medical intervention. The research inspired him to begin University of Missouri Health Care’s Staff for Life helicopter service, a more than 30-year-old service and central Missouri’s sole medical helicopter provider.
The service transports some of mid-Missouri’s most critical patients to health care facilities around the state. Each flight carries a nurse, paramedic and a pilot who work with law enforcement officials and hospitals to respond to serious accidents and illnesses and provide interhospital transport services. For nearly 15 years, MU Health Care has worked with the Colorado-based Air Methods Corp., a medical transport company, to provide the service.
Although Air Methods owns the helicopters, they’re customized for MU. The service’s newest helicopter, unveiled in 2012 to celebrate the program’s 30th anniversary, bears black and gold tiger stripes and a Missouri Tigers logo.
When MU Health Care began operating its helicopter service in 1982, it served about 70 patients in its first year using a single helicopter. Now its three helicopters, which are owned and operated by Air Methods but staffed by MU Health Care employees, go on about 800 calls annually. The flight staff is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Helicopters stationed in Columbia, Osage Beach and LaMonte provide service around the state, with transports particularly concentrated in mid- and west-central Missouri, along with Kansas City and the Lake of the Ozarks region.
MU Health Care spokesman Derek Thompson says the Staff for Life service has dual roles: It provides transports between hospitals, typically when a patient needs more advanced care than a small hospital can provide, and makes “scene flights,” where it works with local emergency services to send patients directly to hospitals that can provide specialized care.
Thompson says the helicopters, which receive dispatch orders from Air Methods’ Central Communication Center in Omaha, Nebraska, can land in just about any open space that is at least 100 by 100 feet and free of hazards such as trees, wires, cars and other debris.
“The Staff for Life Helicopter Service works directly with local fire departments to land at or near accident sites at predesignated or selected landing zones,” Thompson says. “A helicopter could land in a field, provided the site meets safe landing requirements.”
The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services re-accredited Staff for Life in December for a three-year period. The service has held the accreditation since 2003.