THE COMMUNITY Our team is eager to contribute to public safety and participate in a range of community outreach programs, presenting safety orientation courses to hospitals, fire departments, and other EMS agencies, and offering safety programs to schools. For medical students, residents, nurses, and firstresponder personnel, we offer emergency transport education.
SAFETY, EDUCATION & TRAINING In order to provide the highest level of critical care and highest degree of safety for our patients and crew, we continuously invest in education and training, safety interventions, and new equipment and technologies. Drawing on the expertise of our Chief and Associate Chief Medical Officers and Associate Medical Directors, our simulation center, our education department, and the resources of our seven consortium hospitals, our teams stay current in transport, emergency medicine, and critical care medicine through structured programs and case reviews. As a nonprofit organization, we have the ability to put safety and its attendant expenses first—rather than cutting corners to maximize profits.
Because every minute matters.
SafeTeen
Boston MedFlight & Nantucket
Working with community first responders, high school administrators and faculty, PTOs, student organizations, and even the local medical examiner, our SafeTeen outreach team stages simulations of serious accidents on the grounds of local high schools. Real students are cast as victims. Real first responders swarm in, our helicopter lands to triage the most seriously injured, and the hearse arrives to take away the classmates who don’t survive. These simulations are extremely impactful and make a deep and lasting impression on the teenage participants and witnesses regarding the risks of impaired and distracted driving. We hope that by seeing these students during a staged accident, we’ll never see them in the wreckage of a real one.
When seconds count and quality and safety matter, Boston MedFlight makes the difference. We link Nantucket’s most critically ill and injured patients with the lifesaving resources that island residents and visitors depend on. Our flight time from Nantucket to Boston is 40 minutes, and patients are receiving ICU-level care en route.
Our industry-leading services have been accredited by the prestigious Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems and recognized as Program of the Year by the Association of Air Medical Services.
Our SafeTeen outreach team stages simulations of serious accidents on the grounds of local high schools.
Nantucket by the numbers Each year, in our service to Nantucket and its residents we log an average of: •
300 Nantucket patient air transports
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26,000 “Patient on Board” miles flown
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$200,000 total fuel cost for all Nantucket flights
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2,700 crew hours spent on Nantucket transports
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280 adult patients transported
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20 pediatric and neonatal patients transported
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$700,000 free and unreimbursed care provided for Nantucket patients
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Zero patients not served due to lack of insurance or inability to pay.
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During the summer months of June, July, and August, we complete an average of more than one transport per day from Nantucket
Every year, we provide over $4 million in free and unreimbursed care, and we never deny emergency transport services due to a patient’s lack of insurance or inability to pay. And we don’t receive federal or state funding. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we depend on the generous philanthropic support of individuals and organizations to continue providing critical care medical transport to patients in need. In no uncertain terms, your tax-deductible donation helps us save lives. And the next life we save could be yours—or that of your loved one.
For more information on charitable giving to Boston MedFlight, please contact our Development Office at 781-863-2213 or giving@bostonmedflight.org Thank you! Boston MedFlight 150 Hanscom Drive Bedford, MA 01730 (781) 863-2213 www.bostonmedflight.org
Photographers: Airbus Helicopters, Vahe Ender, Kenneth Panciocco, Jr., Michael Pieretti, and Heidi Schmidt
A nonprofit providing critical care medical transport for Nantucket patients for more than 30 years.
THE TEAM Boston MedFlight is an integrated team of seasoned professionals who bring their individual talents together to offer the highest levels of service to our patients.
Boston MedFlight is a worldrenowned, nonprofit, critical care transport program established in 1985 by a consortium of leading hospitals. For more than three decades, Boston MedFlight has worked with this consortium, putting all competition aside, to make the very best decision for each patient. No other program in the United States features this type of longstanding collaboration. Our daily mission is to provide the right vehicle to the right patient at the right time and transport him or her to the right facility, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. With highly trained critical care nurses and critical care paramedics, Boston MedFlight transports adult, pediatric, and neonatal patients with a diverse range of diagnoses including medical, trauma, neurological, respiratory, cardiac, and obstetrical concerns. Our teams provide critical care transport to more than 4,500 gravely ill or injured patients to lifesaving hospital care every year. We average more than one patient transport per day from the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, communities that are logistically dependent on our services. Our service area expands beyond New England including occasional trips to other regions of the United States and Canada.
Medical teams: Our medical teams include critical care transport nurses and critical care transport paramedics who work together, offering patients the benefit of their extensive training and education in emergency and critical care transport. As needed, our teams may also call on additional expert personnel, such as neonatal transport specialists from consortium hospitals. 24 hour medical direction: Boston MedFlight’s experienced physician leadership is available 24 hours a day to provide necessary guidance to our crews. Medical direction is provided by Boston MedFlight’s Chief and Associate Chief Medical Officers in collaboration with other Board-certified critical care and emergency medicine specialists from our consortium hospitals, ensuring expert clinical care for our patients. Communication specialists: Our emergency line is staffed 24/7/365 by our skilled communication specialists who assist with patient placement and initiate the transportation process. All of our communication specialists are certified emergency medical technicians. Pilots: All Boston MedFlight pilots have earned the FAA’s highest possible competency rating as airline transport pilots (ATP) and are proficient in instrument flight rules flying, assuring safe transport even in challenging conditions.
THE FLEET A call comes in and within an average of 10 minutes a Boston MedFlight critical care team is in an aircraft or ground vehicle. From arrival, our crew provides expert and compassionate care, employing the technology and skill of an emergency department or intensive care unit. Helicopters: Each of our helicopters carries a pilot and a highly trained medical team of two: a critical care transport nurse and critical care transport paramedic. Helicopter transports account for 43% of our missions. We fly over 1,960 helicopter critical care transport missions per year, an average of 5.4 flights per day. Ground vehicles: Boston MedFlight has seven state-of-the-art, critical care ground transport vehicles. Each carries a three-person team: EMT (operator), critical care transport nurse, and critical care transport paramedic. Critical care ground vehicles account for 55% of our transports, an average of 6.2 per day. Fixed-wing aircraft: Burlington, Vermont. Bangor, Maine. Nantucket Island. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Washington, DC. Sometimes the critically ill or injured are far away. Our fixedwing aircraft gives us the ability to fly longer critical care transport missions and get patients to the lifesaving care they need, even if that care is located in another part of the country.
Team mechanics: Our factory-trained mechanics apply the most rigorous standards in ensuring equipment safety.
The Consortium: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center | Boston Children’s Hospital | Boston Medical Center | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Lahey Hospital and Medical Center | Massachusetts General Hospital | Tufts Medical Center