Life Flight Network, the largest not-for-profit air medical transport service in the United States, is opening a new base at the William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles, Washington. The base will be operational beginning March 29, 2019. Life Flight Network’s highly trained flight crew at the Port Angeles base will provide ICU level care to communities in Clallam, Jefferson and Island counties and will be capable of responding to calls for transport from anywhere in Western Washington and Southeast Alaska.

The addition of a base in Port Angeles will enhance essential emergency medical services in Washington State by providing emergency medical air transport to the Olympic Peninsula, Whidbey Island and surrounding communities where patients previously had to wait for aircraft to come from the east side of Puget Sound or south from Bremerton. A large portion of the Olympic Peninsula was previously one of few areas in the state unreachable by air ambulance within a 30-minute response time.

Each Life Flight Network helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft is equipped with the medical equipment necessary to act as a mobile intensive care unit, with the ability to perform a multitude of highly skilled medical functions during transport, including video laryngoscopes, ICU level ventilators, and blood products for emergency transfusions.

Life Flight Network offers memberships for a $65 annual fee. Members incur no out-of-pocket expense if flown for medically necessary emergent conditions by Life Flight Network or one of its reciprocal partners. To request more information about the membership program, or if organizations would like an in-person presentation, contact the Life Flight Network membership office at 800-982-9299.