Ground Transport
LifeFlight utilizes three modes of transport: helicopter, airplane, and ground ambulance. In each, the standard of care is the same. Each mode has its own advantages and limitations based on the situation and providing safe, reliable care is the core of LifeFlight’s mission.
When LifeFlight aircraft cannot fly because of weather or maintenance needs, our crews must get to the patient by ground.
Additionally, not all LifeFlight patients need the speed of an aircraft. Many patients in Maine can be transported only by LifeFlight because they need to maintain the same ICU-level of care during transport, but their condition is less affected by out-of-hospital time. For these patients, moving by LifeFlight ambulance may be the best option. It provides safe and reliable transport from one medical facility to another, while keeping the LifeFlight aircraft in service for other patients in Maine for whom out-of-hospital time is critical.
Approximately 26% of LifeFlight missions are completed in a ground ambulance.
For years, LifeFlight partnered with municipal and private ambulance services to provide ground response: LifeFlight medical teams traveled with a patient in a partner agency’s ambulance. In Fall 2023, LifeFlight launched its Critical Care Ground Transport Program with its own ground ambulances, allowing LifeFlight crews to respond to calls for help more quickly, and keeping partner agency’s ambulances in service to continue serving their local community.
LifeFlight provides the same ICU-level critical care for patients in its ground ambulances as it does in its aircraft. LifeFlight crews typically transport patients by ground when:
- Weather precludes safe flight operation
- Additional transport resources are needed
- The aircraft are busy with other patients
- The safest clinical option is to move the patient by ground
LifeFlight transports around 600 patients per year by ground, including a partnership with the Rosen Neonatal Care Unit Teams at Northern Light EMMC.
The LifeFlight teams work seamlessly across all vehicle types.
Each LifeFlight vehicle is configured to support critical patients including:
- Advanced ventilators
- Invasive cardiac and neuro-monitoring
- Multiple infusion pumps
- Laboratory
- Ultrasound
- An ICU pharmacy
- Blood and plasma product
- Advanced resuscitation and trauma care
The vehicles can be reconfigured with specialized newborn transport isolettes, intra-aortic and ventricular assist devices, tandem hearts, and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) for patients needing cardiopulmonary bypass.
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