Helicopter Flight Transportation: Florida Flight One

When our patients require services unavailable at one of our FHHD facilities, a two-hour trip to Orlando can be reduced to 20 minutes so they can quickly receive the treatment they need.

Florida Flight I, Florida Hospital's air ambulance, is a critical care unit in the sky offering cardiac patients a step up in technology and comfort while maintaining the outstanding staff and service you have come to expect from Florida Hospital.

In fact, the new EC145 flight medicine helicopter (put into service in April 2005) will allow Florida Hospital’s Florida Flight 1 team to treat even more patients. The helicopter is equipped with state-of-the-art weather radar, which allows the team to take off and maneuver around storms instead of waiting the storm out. In addition, since the helicopter is larger, more critical patients can be transported because there is additional space for medical staff and equipment.

For the past 20 years, Florida Flight 1 has been serving the Central Florida community and beyond. The team transfers patients within the Florida Hospital system as well as patients at other hospitals across the state. Florida Flight 1 has taken more than 16,000 flights serving hospitals as far north as Gainesville down to Okeechobee and across both coasts of Florida.

The Florida Flight I crews consist of an emergency/critical care registered nurse and a critical care registered respiratory therapist. The helicopter is piloted by a professional who must have a minimum of 2,000 hours flight time.

The aircraft remains in constant communication via radio with trained paramedics responsible from dispatch to arrival. The team is under the medical direction of a cardiologist and an emergency medicine physician.

Florida Flight I transports the following types of cases:

• Cardiac
• Neurological Injuries
• Traumatic Accident Victims
• Pediatric Patients (Florida Flight I has specialized pediatric and neonatal crews available for transports)
• Burn Victims
• Poisoning or Drug Overdose
• Organ Transplant Donors or Recipients