Guardian Air Transport

Guardian Air Transport is a hospital based, non-profit air medical programme owned by Northern Arizona Healthcare. It is based in Flagstaff, Arizona, and flies patients from remote parts of northern Arizona to the care they need.

Services

Guardian Air handles two kinds of requests. One is a transfer between hospitals. The other is a scene request. Its flight nurse and flight paramedic teams care for adult, maternal, neonatal and pediatric patients.

The site lists four specialty services. For adults it names heart and stroke care, balloon pump management, bariatric patients and trauma. For children it names ventilator care. For mothers it names high risk obstetric transport. For newborns it names 24 hour transport with temperature controlled isolettes.

Aircraft

An accreditation notice on the site says the programme owns eight Bell 407 helicopters and one Pilatus PC 12 fixed-wing plane. Metro Aviation maintains and operates them.

Safety and equipment

Crews use a rule where any one of the three flight team members can cancel a flight. The site also lists night vision goggles, satellite phones and onboard weather monitoring. Medical equipment includes Hamilton T1 ventilators, intra-aortic balloon pumps and Impella transport.

Guardian Air is a member of Arizona's high risk perinatal and newborn intensive care programme. The site says crews and dispatchers go through a hiring process and ongoing training. Twice a year the programme holds safety stand down days, when it accepts no flights and trains instead.

Facts

• Type: hospital programme of Northern Arizona Healthcare
• Serving northern Arizona since August 1985
• Accredited by CAMTS since 1996, according to the programme
• Aircraft operator: Metro Aviation