Air Medical Transport
When minutes matter, our accredited air medical transport team delivers life-saving critical care inside the world’s most advanced medical helicopters. Our flight team can be airborne within minutes to reach the most critically ill patients within a 150-mile radius of La Crosse.
24/7 critical care flight program
Serving western Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota, our flight ambulance service provides specialized critical-care air transport for adult, pediatric and neonatal patients. Along with rapid launch capability, our highly experienced flight team works in close coordination with referring hospitals and EMS agencies to deliver seamless, advanced care from first contact through arrival.
Advanced interventions
Our flight team is expertly trained to provide advanced critical care interventions consistent with current evidence-based practice and medical direction — capabilities that extend beyond the scope of ground transport. These include:
- ICU-level care and life-saving procedures performed in-flight, such as rapid sequence intubation, advanced ventilator management, hemodynamic monitoring, vasoactive medication infusions, needle decompression, chest tube placement and management, pericardiocentesis, point-of-care ultrasound and emergency blood product administration
- Transport and management of patients requiring advanced circulatory support devices, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), Impella devices and intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP)
- Burn patient transport, including specialized management and rapid transfer to verified burn centers
- High-risk obstetric transport for maternal-fetal emergencies requiring expedited access to advanced perinatal and neonatal intensive care services
- Specialized neonatal transport, provided by a dedicated Neonatal Transport Team equipped to care for critically ill and premature newborns
- Direct access to Level I and Level II trauma centers across the region, ensuring patients are transported to the most appropriate facility without delay
Requesting air transport
To request emergency air transport for a neonate, child or adult, call Emergency Dispatch at (800) 527-1200.
Our highly trained dispatch team is available 24/7 to help you arrange air or ground transport for your patients. Be prepared to share essential information so our team can respond quickly and safely; see details below.
Accident scene requests
We respond to accident scenes when a patient’s needs exceed the scene's resources. We'll work with the closest appropriate hospital. Try to be prepared with:
- Your agency or facility name
- Call-back phone number
- Location details with landmarks and GPS coordinates, if available
- Nature of the emergency and known medical information
- Brief description of patient’s illness or injury and current condition
- Number of patients involved
- On-scene radio frequency and unit number, which will coordinate the landing site
- Any known hazards at the landing site
When our flight team is close, we’ll contact you to arrange a landing and response.
Interfacility transports
When requesting an interfacility transport to a higher level of care, please be prepared with:
- Referring doctor, hospital or agency name
- Call-back phone number
- Patient's name, age, weight and date of birth
- Brief description of the patient's illness or injury, and current condition
- Vital signs, medications given and reason air transport is needed
- Access to the patient's medical record, labs and imaging
- Signed consent from the patient or family
- Requests for specialized equipment or medications needed by the flight team
Landing zone preparation
Help us prepare to deliver care before we land by:
Having the patient ready
- Begin airway management and oxygen
- Stabilize the spine for trauma patients
- Provide copies of patient records, medical history, labs and X-rays
Getting ready for our landing
- For accident scenes, find at least a 100-foot by 100-foot, level and well-lit landing spot free of debris, wires and trees
- Assign someone to protect the helicopter's tail rotor
Talking to us
- Assign someone on the ground to talk with our pilot
- When they make contact, have your designee brief the pilot of landing zone changes and hazards
- We have access to all VHF mutual aid frequencies in our response area, as well as access to Wisconsin WISCOM, Iowa ISICS and Minnesota ARMER Systems
Keeping everyone safe
- Rotors create wind gusts up to 120 mph. Stay at least 100 feet from our landing area
- Do not approach the aircraft unless you’re with our flight crew or have permission from the pilot
- Remove or secure stretcher pads, sheets and IV poles
- Allow our medical team to bring the patient to the helicopter and operate the doors
- Move back as soon as we load the patient
Our service area
Training and event requests
Our air medical transport team is proud to partner with medical facilities, care professionals and EMS agencies to provide education and training. Our flight crew and helicopter are also available for community events, and we welcome groups to tour our hangars in Decorah, Iowa, and Sparta, Wis. Complete our online request form well in advance of your training or event, and we’ll be in touch.
Flight team opportunities
Our expertly trained flight team brings advanced skill and heart to every mission – ensuring the highest quality of advanced critical care throughout our region. The team includes flight nurses, flight paramedics and pilots from Metro Aviation, as well as specialized neonatal nurses and respiratory therapists for neonatal transport. If you're a passionate healthcare or aviation professional ready to make a meaningful difference, we invite you to explore what it means to be part of our dynamic team.
CAMTS accreditation
When you call on Emplify Health, you can trust that you're getting one of the best air medical transport programs in the country. Our accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) means we've been independently verified to meet the highest standards in safety and patient care. Whether you're a community member or a referring medical provider, you can feel confident your loved one or patient is in expert hands.
About our aircraft
Our Airbus EC145 medical helicopters are operated from regional bases in Decorah, Iowa, and Sparta, Wis. Both aircraft share the following safety features:
- Autopilot and stability augmentation system (SAS)
- Helicopter terrain awareness warning system (HTAWS)
- Instrument flight rules (IFR)
- Night-vision goggles for pilots and medical crew on night flights
- On-board weather radar
- Traffic awareness systems
- Twin-engine for enhanced safety and performance
As an IFR-certified flight program, we use Hospital Special Instrument Approach Procedures (HSIAPs) providing an added level of safety and access to our regional hospital partners in inclement weather conditions.
Metro Aviation flies and maintains our helicopters to the highest FAA safety standards (under Part 135 regulations) with continuous maintenance and safety checks that keep every aircraft mission-ready at all times.
Air Medical Transport is a department of Emplify Health. For general inquiries and business purposes, we’re open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.