Raising The Bar
for Clinical
Excellence

Flight Nurses

• Minimum 3+ years in an ICU or ED
• Current RN license(s) for states of practice
• EMS or MICN certification/licensure*
• Current certifications in Healthcare Provider BLS/CPR; ACLS; PALS or equivalent and TNCC/ITLS-advanced provider*

*If required by state and/or county

Flight Paramedics

• Minimum 3+ years at advanced life support or ambulance service
• EMT-P certification in state(s) served
• Current certifications in Healthcare Provider BLS/CPR; ACLS; PALS or equivalent and TNCC/ITLS-advanced provider*

*If required by state and/or county

New Hire – All Clinicians

• All newly-hired clinicians attend a seven-day orientation and local preceptorship.
• Attend 100 hours of didactic lectures
• Utilize dynamic METI critical care human patient simulators
• Validate 24 competencies including cadaver laboratory

Ongoing – All Clinicians

• All clinicians receive ongoing training at six dedicated training centers across the country.
• Complete 100 hours of online education
• Use dynamic METI critical care human patient simulation centers two times annually

Air Methods crew members are able to:

• Observe clinicians in real time (even from offsite)
• Use advanced software reports that allow us to implement both individual plans and track trends across the country
• Train for pediatric, infant and high-risk OB patients, as well as standard adult patients
• Learn and improve in state-of-the-art classrooms and debriefing rooms

Air Methods uses human cadaver labs for training on procedural skills and anatomical knowledge. The goal is to empower the flight crews with the confidence needed to perform medical procedures in high-intensity situations, supervised by our medical directors.

Air Methods is raising the bar for clinical research. Our research is not only impacting lives in air medical, but has been widely accepted in prehospital emergency care and emergency medicine. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into safety technologies, tools and training, and we have benchmarked the standards in emergency medicine.

• Much like a university hospital, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approves research to make sure it applies ethical methodology
• Database of 8,000 procedures, Air Methods derives statistical research from its operations nationwide to scientifically establish best practices
• Internal educators teach new employees how to perform procedures informed by evidence-based practices
• 26 active clinical research projects with approval from the IRB

• More applicable than other difficult airway prediction tools used in other settings
• Recognized by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) as a best practice
• Utilized not only within Air Methods but also internationally and throughout the U.S.
• Implemented in journals, books and educational materials
• First-attempt tracheal tube placement rate exceeds 90% consistently – nearly 20% better than the average pre-hospital rate

The Ground Air Medical Quality Transport (GAMUT) Quality Improvement Collaborative is a database for transport teams to track, report and analyze their performance on transport-specific quality metrics by comparing it to other programs. According to the GAMUT Benchmarking, Air Methods’ clinicians outperform the industry in six key metrics, including first-attempt tracheal tube placement success.

Protean

• Post-flight debriefing
• 100% QA review of transports

Physician Involvement

• 70 active physician medical directors for 156 CBS bases
• Ensuring our clinical team receives active guidance
• Actively involved through the chart review process, case review sessions and clinical risk mitigation activities
• National patient care guidelines and systematic review of best practices

• Encourages reporting of all issues
• Events are collected and analyzed for risk mitigation
• ID positive and negative events
• Monitor equipment performance
• Collect and trend data
• Yields over 500 case reviews annually