Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Non-Construction - LifeFlight of Maine is a private non-profit with an important public, statewide mission as Maine’s only critical care ambulance service; to ensure that everyone, in every community, has access to critical care and medical transport when needed. LifeFlight partners with every hospital and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) agency in the state, assuring timely access to tertiary care for critically ill and injured patients of all ages and diseases. Since 1998, LifeFlight’s highly skilled and trained medical crews have provided ICU-level care, consistent with physicians, to more than 38,000 patients. The combination of Maine’s vast expanse, rugged landscape, challenging weather, rural population, and a fragile and fragmented healthcare system demands an equally complex and deliberately designed medical transport fleet that connects Maine’s most ill and injured patients to the care they need. LifeFlight of Maine is that connector. LifeFlight currently owns and operates helicopters, an airplane, and partners with EMS providers who own ground ambulances. For the last 26 years, LifeFlight has relied on partner-owned ambulances for its ground transports. The EMS agency supplies an ambulance and an Emergency Medical Technician driver, while LifeFlight provides the critical care team and specialized equipment. However, Maine EMS agencies are in crisis due to complex financial challenges and staffing issues. The agencies are unable to provide reliable resources for LifeFlight’s emergency inter-hospital transports because of their own 911 emergency response calls. Furthermore, partner EMS agencies are not licensed to provide critical care and their vehicles are often not equipped to support complex patients during transfer, especially regarding the electrical requirements of LifeFlight’s medical technology. LifeFlight incurs the cost of critical care services provided and receives no reimbursement for those services, as only the agency directly providing the transport can bill for services. This practice is unsustainable and diminishes LifeFlight’s ability to care for critically ill or injured patients when every minute matters. LifeFlight has identified the growing need to enhance and expand patient care by securing its own specialized ground ambulances. LifeFlight cares for 2,500+ patients annually and is projected to serve 4,000 patients a year by 2030. Nearly 90% of transports are inter-hospital. LifeFlight is the only option to connect critically ill or injured patients quickly and safely to the care they need. These patients range from premature infants and seriously injured children to adults and seniors who need specialty care. For non-time urgent, high acuity transports or when LifeFlight’s aircraft are unable to fly due to weather conditions or maintenance, ground vehicles are a critical component to the fleet. Ground transports account for approximately 25% of LifeFlight’s missions and demand is increasing. As all LifeFlight services are emergent, ground vehicles and trained drivers must be immediately available. LifeFlight has initiated purchasing its own ground mobile intensive care and newborn units to meet increasing need and reliability. The vehicles will operate out of LifeFlight’s three bases of operation—Bangor, Lewiston, and Sanford. To ensure the ground vehicles are staffed and immediately ready for service once acquired, LifeFlight will hire and train 16 new full-time employees. LifeFlight will equip the specially designed ambulances with full mobile ICU technology including ventilators, infusion pumps, invasive cardiac, pulmonary, and neuro systems, laboratory, ultrasound, blood, and pharmacy at an estimated cost of $400,000 per vehicle. The initial purchase of three specialized vehicles, supported by CDS funding, will enhance LifeFlight’s current ground capability, assuring LifeFlight’s ability to respond to a projected 300% increase in ground critical care transport over the next 5-7 years.
