Today, the Parkview Samaritan Flight Program celebrates its 35th anniversary of providing medical care and transport for trauma, critically ill, cardiac and neonatal patients.
Parkview began the flight program on November 18, 1989, with one helicopter. Today, the Samaritan fleet includes two helicopters with bases in Fort Wayne and Rochester, Indiana, and three emergency vehicles, a Mobile ICU (MICU), an advanced life support (ALS) truck and two basic life support (BLS) trucks that provide rapid patient transport on the ground. Last summer, a new helicopter, a Leonardo AW-169, was added to the fleet, allowing one of the previous helicopters to serve as a backup when needed.
Both aircrafts have a 100-mile radius from Fort Wayne to Rochester, allowing them to reach patients in northern Indiana, northwest Ohio and southwest Michigan. Since the beginning of the program, Parkview’s Samaritan helicopters have taken a total of 27,000 flights and flown 27,900 patients.
On average, a Samaritan leaves the helipad seven minutes from the time a call is received. About 40% of flights are to pick up patients from the scene of an injury and 60% are to pick up patients from facilities referring them to Parkview Regional Medical Center. Both helicopters are deployed by dispatchers at the Parkview Logistics Center, located on the Parkview Hospital Randallia campus.
Want more Samaritan?
See what happens When Samaritan Gets a Call.
Spend a day behind the scenes with this day-in-the-life article.
Read about the last original crew member to hang up his flight suit.
Watch Samaritan Save Christmas!
