Air Methods, has rebranded its Florida programme in the greater Tampa Bay area as AirLife Florida. The local crews and aircraft formerly operated as Bayflite and will continue to serve the region as AirLife Florida with bases in Tampa, North Port and Inverness. This rebranding went into effect on 1 April.

AirLife Florida will have the same highly trained and experienced crew flying the same medical helicopters, just with a new logo and paint scheme. The direct dispatch number also remains unchanged: 800-223-4494. Some community partners or transfer centres have alternate dispatch numbers which also continue to directly route callers to the same dispatch centre that was used under the previous name. Air Methods has offered air medical services to the area for over 33 years and will continue to do so as AirLife Florida. Crews respond to interfacility transport requests as well as 911 scene calls, flying an EC135 helicopter.

“We are proud to have served this community for over 33 years and remain dedicated to continuing to do so as AirLife Florida,” says Jeff See, senior VP of customer experience at Air Methods. “AirLife Florida's lifesaving services and well-trained critical care teams will be here to serve the greater Tampa Bay community and citizens in their time of need.”

AirLife Florida provides essential and lifesaving services throughout the region. During missions, highly trained medical teams care for patients with lifesaving interventions to significantly improve patient outcomes. These interventions include providing advanced trauma care such as blood products administration, advanced airway intervention, cardiac/hemodynamic monitoring, ventilator management and vasoactive medication administration and titration, advanced surgical procedures.

AirLife Florida also has a first-pass intubation success rate over 98 per cent, well above industry and emergency department average. With the continued consolidation of hospitals and the trend towards centres with specialised heart or neurological care, the clinical support and speed of missions is critical to giving patients the best possible outcomes.