CareFlight

CareFlight
IATA ICAO Callsign
CFH CareFight
Founded 1986
Hubs Darwin International Airport
Fleet size 10
Headquarters Sydney, New South Wales
Key people Andrew Refshauge
Website http://www.careflight.org

CareFlight is an aero-medical charity established in 1986 by a group of people with a shared vision: to create a better medical retrieval service in Australia. The organisation uses helicopters, aeroplanes and medi-jets to bring a hospital level of care to the critically ill and injured.

Description

A CareFlight AW109 helicopter on take-off from Sydney Olympic Park

CareFlight's mission is to save lives, speed recovery and serve the community by providing the highest standard of rapid response critical care. The organisation uses helicopters, aeroplanes and medi-jets to bring a hospital level of care to the critically ill and injured. The aircrew, medical teams and coordinators work closely together to ensure that patients receive the best care as soon as possible. There's an emphasis on bringing the right team to the right patient at the right time.

CareFlight doctors and nurses are specially trained in pre-hospital and transport medicine. They care for severely injured patients who need emergency treatment at the scene of the incident. They also transport seriously ill patients who need to be moved between hospitals. Currently, CareFlight aeromedical teams care for over 5,000 patients a year.

CareFlight has a strong focus on education. It holds teaching accreditation with the critical care colleges of anaesthesia, intensive care and emergency medicine. Over the years CareFlight has trained hundreds of critical care specialists in the unique and challenging environment of pre-hospital and transport medicine.

The not-for-profit organisation's commitment to education goes beyond training specialist doctors and nurses. In 2011 CareFlight initiated the CareFlight MediSim program. This mobile simulation program teaches rural and remote emergency services volunteers how to better treat trauma patients at accident scenes. What they do in the first few minutes before medical help arrives can have a major impact on the patient's outcome.

CareFlight is also about innovation. Flying critical care doctors to the seriously ill and injured; introducing night vision goggle technology for safer night flying; conducting a clinical trial to investigate the benefits of early physician intervention for patients with head injuries; these are all Australian 'firsts'.

Everything CareFlight has achieved over the years has been with the support of the community it serves. That loyal and generous support has made it possible for CareFlight to spread their wings across Australia and beyond. The group relies on many partners and friends to provide the resources to make the CareFlight difference.

See also

References

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 18, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.