October 22, 2020
New partnership to improve critical care for pediatric and neonatal patients
Tacoma – UW Medicine and MultiCare Health System have signed an agreement making Airlift Northwest the preferred air transport service for pediatric patients needing care at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and neonatal patients needing care at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital in Tacoma, Wash.
As part of the agreement, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital Pediatric Critical Care transport team and Tacoma General Hospital’s Neonatal Critical Care transport team will accompany Airlift Northwest staff to provide critical care on flights transporting pediatric and neonatal patients between hospitals across the state.
Airlift Northwest Interim Executive Director Jeff Richey describes the partnership as being “the latest development in decades of collaboration between our organizations. Combining the expertise in neonatal clinical care and air medical transport means providing the most rapid, high quality care for those in greatest need. We are proud to work together to provide better outcomes for our pediatric patients in Western Washington and beyond.”
“Neonatal babies, children and adolescents across Washington will now have better and faster access to the specialized pediatric care at Mary Bridge Children’s,” said Jeff Poltawsky, President, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.
The Mary Bridge Children’s and Tacoma General transport teams currently provide ground transportation for pediatric and neonatal patients in Western Washington. The partnership with Airlift Northwest enhances Mary Bridge’s and Tacoma General’s ability to serve Washington and means families in Eastern Washington communities such as Yakima, Tri-Cities and Spokane can quickly access the expertise at Mary Bridge and Tacoma General hospitals. Tacoma General has the only Level IV NICU in Southwest Washington. By offering air transport with the Pediatric team, this makes the Mary Bridge Pediatric Transport team the only hospital-based, pediatric transport team in the state to offer ground and air transport.
“We are honored to expand our partnership with Airlift Northwest, which is similarly focused on ensuring kids in our communities get the health care services they need,” said Laureen Driscoll, RN, President, Tacoma General Hospital.
MultiCare recently signed a Preferred Provider Agreement with Airlift Northwest to ensure that patients who need care at a MultiCare hospital had appropriate transportation. This is one example of how UW Medicine and MultiCare Health System are working together as part of an alliance announced in 2017 to expand access to high-quality health care and allow the two organizations to engage in joint activities to further the mission of each organization. The two health systems also worked together to create clinically integrated network called Embright.
Background:
Airlift Northwest
As a not-for-profit service of UW Medicine, Airlift Northwest’s mission is to provide high-quality air medical transportation to underserved areas, and offer a higher degree of critical care to those in greatest need.
Since its founding in 1982, Airlift Northwest has expanded to provide service to a four-state region and has transported more than 100,000 patients to regional hospitals. Its aircraft are strategically located at eight bases throughout Southeast Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for rapid deployment. They work closely with first responder and hospital partners to save lives together.
All aviation services, pilots and mechanics are provided by Air Methods Corporation and Aero Air, LLC. Airlift Northwest is an entity of UW Medicine, and fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTs).
Learn more about Airlift Northwest at: airliftnw.org, facebook.com/airliftnw, and twitter.com/airliftnw
MultiCare
MultiCare is a not-for-profit health care organization with more than 18,000 team members, including employees, providers and volunteers. MultiCare has been caring for our community for well over a century, since the founding of Tacoma’s first hospital and today is the largest community-based, locally governed health system in the state of Washington.
MultiCare’s comprehensive system of health includes numerous primary care, urgent care and specialty services — including Immediate Clinic, MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care, Pulse Heart Institute and MultiCare Rockwood Clinic, the largest multispecialty clinic in the Inland Northwest region.
MultiCare’s network of care includes 10 hospitals:
- MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, Auburn
- MultiCare Covington Medical Center, Covington
- MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, Spokane
- MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, Puyallup
- Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley
- Navos Behavioral Health Hospital
- Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital