Contact:
Amy Paul, Executive Director, Strategic Communications, 309-655-2777;
Theresa Schieffer, Assistant Director, Public Relations, 309-655-2322

Subject: Expanded Life Flight Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Feb. 28, 2008) The OSF Saint Francis Life Flight program is expanding its services.

Effective March 1, two aircraft will be operating from Peoria around-the-clock, which will mean an increase in nighttime services. The helicopters are based out of an operational center at the Greater Peoria Regional Airport.

Started in 1984, the Life Flight program is the busiest of its kind in Illinois, with more than 1,400 patient transfers by air annually. The air medical service performs inter-hospital transfers and transfers from the scenes of emergencies. Life Flight primarily operates in central Illinois within a 150-mile radius of OSF Saint Francis, serving regional community hospitals and EMS agencies.

The Life Flight program is staffed by two flight paramedics, 21 flight nurses, nine pilots and four mechanics, along with emergency medicine resident physicians, with assistance from communications specialists.

Last year, the Life Flight program relocated to a newly constructed 19,000-square-foot facility at the Greater Peoria Regional Airport. A new helipad became operational at the main OSF Saint Francis Medical Center campus and a fourth aircraft was acquired by OSF Aviation last year as well.