Business View Magazine
3
Healthcare
Octob r – Business View
91
have life, to experience life and we’re thankful to work
for a service which provides that.”
Prior to its launch in 1982, Airlift Northwest’s
eventual founder, Dr. Michael Copass, was conducting
a training exercise in Alaska when three children were
badly burned in a nearby fire. Their injuries were such
that immediate transport to a medical facility was
necessary, but no such transport was immediately
available and two of the children died at the scene.
The third ultimately died on the way to a hospital after
transport was finally secured.
Copass ultimately founded the service – the region’s
first critical-care air transport operation – via an alliance
with UW Medicine, which operates several hospitals,
“Dr. Copass used to say that our good
work would speak for itself, but we’ve
realized that it is important to do more
to let people know what we do,”
BWMNA AW109 Power EMS 1
05/09/13 10:02
as well as the University of Washington’s School of
Medicine and several more neighborhood clinics and
physician practices.
It now provides flights in four states with a crew
that includes two nurses licensed to provide advanced
cardiac life support, advanced pediatric life support,
trauma and neonatal resuscitation. Flight nurses also
hold certification in critical care nursing, emergency
nursing or flight nursing, or have acquired certification
as emergency medical technicians.
Airlift Northwest has been accredited since 1997 by
the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport
