This year we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of LifeFlight Eagle.
As we reflect on the past 25 years and the tens of thousands of lives touched, we are reaching out to our communities and asking you to share your stories, photos and other memories of LifeFlight Eagle. We will compile and share them as part of a celebration this fall to reflect on the past and look forward to the future as we work to fulfill our mission to save lives.
LifeFlight Eagle is a 501(c3) non-profit organization that provides life-saving helicopter transport for critically ill and injured patients in Kansas and Missouri communities surrounding Kansas City.
Our roots date back to 1978, when Saint Joseph Hospital in Kansas City launched the Spirit of Saint Joseph LifeFlight program, which was the fifth civilian helicopter ambulance program in the country (learn about LifeFlight Eagle's history).
The LifeFlight Eagle system now includes four helicopters based in Chillicothe, Odessa, Clinton and Harrisonville, Mo., as well as an additional helicopter dedicated to the Children's Mercy Critical Care Transport Team in Kansas City, which is specially designed and staffed to serve our neonatal and pediatric patients, and now expectant mothers.
All of LifeFlight Eagle's bases are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with a pilot, flight nurse and flight paramedic. Our aircraft are operated and maintained by PHI Air Medical, a partner that sets the bar for quality and safety in the air-medical industry.
LifeFlight Eagle serves communities in Missouri and Eastern Kansas from its four bases in Chillicothe, Odessa, Harrisonville and Clinton, MO. Our Bell 407 and Bell 407GX aircraft have an operational radius of 150 nautical miles from each of our bases. However, in practical terms the vast majority of our flights occur within 50-75 miles of our bases. The below map shows approximately a 30-minute response time including the time it takes us preflight and launch the helicopter after receiving a request. Flight times from a scene or referring facility to a receiving hospital are much faster.
Our larger Sikorsky S-76 twin-engine helicopter, which is dedicated to the Children's Mercy Critical Care Transport Team, has a larger range and does frequently travel 200 miles or further for specialized neonatal and pediatric interfacility transfers.
While much has changed since 1978, the mission remains the same
From its early beginnings as the country's fifth air-medical program and a pioneer helping develop new ways to save lives, LifeFlight Eagle's mission has been to provide rural communities with access to rapid, life-saving critical-care transport.
LifeFlight Eagle's roots began as the Spirit of Saint Joseph Life Flight, which launched in 1978 as the vision of a group of physicians and nuns at Saint Joseph Health Center in Kansas City.
LifeFlight Eagle is blessed to employ some of the best medical practioners in the industry. Our team of more than 50 flight nurses and flight paramedics are highly experienced, highly trained and highly respected among their peers. Best of all, they provide compassionate critical care to every patient and family member they meet.
LifeFlight Eagle is fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS), which is a peer review organization dedicated to improving patient care and transport safety by providing a dynamic accreditation process through the development of standards, education, and services.
LifeFlight Eagle has been CAMTS accredited since 2001, and it received full triennial accreditation after its most recent survey in early 2019. LifeFlight Eagle believes it is important to maintain this accreditation to continually review our processes to assure best practices are being met.
Additionally, LifeFlight Eagle is a licensed air and ground ambulance in the state of Missouri and Kansas. All of its nurses and paramedics are fully licensed in both states as well.
