Emergency Response Teams - Med Flight and C.H.E.T.A.

UW Health's emergency transportation services program reaffirms its mission of offering comprehensive, quality health care and strengthens its role as a regional resource.

 

Both UW Hospital and Clinics and American Family Children's Hospital have been certified by the American College of Surgeons as Level One Trauma Centers, one of two organizations in the state to be rated as such. Our critical care service works with physicians, hospitals and emergency services to make available life-saving critical care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

 

 

Our Med Flight team is comprised of specially trained physicians, flight  nurses, dispatchers and pilots, and works within a 225-mile radius of Madison. The Med Flight helicopter can be in the air within minutes to transport patients between hospitals or to care - including UW Hospital's Level One Trauma Center - for victims of crashes or disasters.

 

Med Flight's medical compartment is essentially a flying emergency room, equipped with airway equipment including a ventilator, blood pressure and heart monitors, IV equipment, defibrillators and pacemaker equipment. Also on board is a complete array of emergency medicine drugs, including those for treating heart attacks and brain injuries. 

 

Specifically designed for air rescue, the new Eurocopter (EC 135) aircraft has come to be known as a workhorse in the emergency air transport industry.

 

Equipped with the most advanced air medical technology available, the low-noise and powerful twin-engine helicopter is highly maneuverable and features up-to-the-minute technology, panoramic visibility, and state-of-the-art safety features.

 

 

CHETA - the Children's Hospital Emergency Transport Ambulance - is a fully-equipped, state-of-the-art ground transport unit available to serve pediatric critical care needs. The CHETA ambulance boasts the complete medical capabilities of the Med Flight helicopters, meaning it is equipped to safely carry severely ill and injured children to the attention of an appropriate health care team. UW Health pediatric intensive care unit nurses and respiratory therapists staff CHETA and they have all been specially trained to respond to the specific needs of emergency and trauma situations.

 

CHETA features: 

 

Please see our Arranging Emergency Transport section for more information about arranging critical care transport via Med Flight or CHETA.