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Business View Magazine
94 Business View – October
Healthcare
Services, which reflects adherence to patient
care, safety and operational standards within the
industry. It engages pilots with the training and
pertinent local knowledge to operate their aircraft,
which means they’re familiar with flying over water,
mountainous terrain and in air corridors where
hot-pockets or winds are prevalent.
Pilots andmedical personnel participated inmore
than 4,000 transports last year, and Nelson said
Airlift Northwest will continue in its current region
of service while seeking means to maintain funding
viability, thanks to changes in the healthcare law
and declining reimbursement rates.
A new membership program, for $79 a year,
covers a family so that if transport occurred, no
charges would be assessed to anyone beyond what
insurance pays.
“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,” Nelson said.
A recent benefactor has been author Richard
Bach, who established a fund – “A Gift of Wings” –
to benefit critical care programs affiliated with UW
Medicine, Harborview Medical Center and the
services provided by Airlift Northwest. Bach took
off from his home in Washington’s San Juan Islands
in an amphibious, single-engine Easton Gilbert
Searey and inadvertently clipped power lines as
he prepared to land at Friday Harbor Airport. He
crashed and sustained severe injuries to his head,
chest and spine.
Within minutes of the accident, he received
treatment from RNs affiliated with Airlift
Northwest who tended to his injuries, secured
him for flight and transported him at Harborview
Medical Center in Seattle. He survived and has
since credited Airlift Northwest for saving his life,
and he cited the experience as inspiration for a
new passage to be published with a new edition
of his noted work, Jonathon Livingston Seagull.
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Airlift Northwest
WHAT:
Critical care air
transport service
WHERE:
Headquarters in
Seattle, WA
WEBSITE:
