Our Mission

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Every 3.5 Hours

Every 3.5 hours, every day of the year, LifeFlight is dispatched on a mission to help provide critical care and rapid transport to a person of Maine. Much more than just its iconic helicopters, LifeFlight plays an integral role in connecting Maine’s widely dispersed and fragile healthcare system. The highly skilled and trained medical teams bring ICU-level care directly to the patient, wherever he/she is. LifeFlight’s commitment to Maine is that every person, in every community, has access to critical care and medical transport when needed.

Maine is a big state, and many communities are rural, remote, and sparsely populated. LifeFlight plays a critical role in connecting people to the care they need, as part of the “chain of survival.”

Now in its 25th year as Maine’s sole air medical provider, LifeFlight has served 36,000 patients from every town and hospital in the state. It has become nationally and internationally recognized as a leader in the field of transport medicine for quality, safety, community service, and innovation.

LifeFlight’s mission is to transform the critical care transport medicine system into an integrated, high-quality, patient-centered system worthy of the public’s trust.

Minutes Matter

It’s all about “the golden hour.” In the case of heart attack, stroke, or car accident, the care that the patient gets in the first 60 minutes will likely determine the outcome.

In many cases, minutes matter, as the assessment and treatment a patient gets soon after a traumatic event or injury has a significant impact on the outcome. Whether the call comes from a rural hospital seeking care and transport for a critically ill patient or from a first responder requiring assistance for a scene call, LifeFlight is ready.

In addition to critical care transport, LifeFlight helps develop aviation infrastructure and provides clinical education to healthcare providers around the state. Since 1998, LifeFlight has safely transported more than 34,000 patients from every corner of Maine.

LifeFlight operates from bases in Sanford, Lewiston, and Bangor, Maine, using four helicopters, a fixed-wing airplane, rapid response vehicles, and specialized ground ambulances. These medical teams care for Maine by partnering 24/7/365 with local EMS, fire/rescue, and hospital providers.

As a nonprofit, charitable organization, LifeFlight depends on the support of individuals, towns, businesses, hospitals, and other foundations to continuously maintain and upgrade our fleet and infrastructure.

LifeFlight of Maine is the state’s only emergency air ambulance helicopter service. In a sparsely populated state like Maine, the most effective way to deliver critical care is to put the ICU in a helicopter.

Core Values

Our patients are at the center of all that we do, and they deserve uncompromising standards:

  • Uncompromising standards for safety: We are empowered to make decisions about our safety and our patient’s safety.
  • Uncompromising standards for clinical excellence: Driven by constant evaluation of current best practice, we continually strive to set the highest standards possible and ensure everyone is given the tools necessary to meet those standards.
  • Uncompromising standards for each mission: We will do everything we can to care for our patient and serve the people of Maine, and we will do it with grace and kindness.
  • Uncompromising standards for the team: We are committed to an environment of open, honest dialogue where we can learn and grow from our experiences.