St. John's Life Line helicopters provide safe, rapid, air transport for emergency patients in Central and Southwest Missouri and Northern Arkansas. A flight crew, comprising a registered nurse, a paramedic and a pilot respond to life-threatening emergencies: trauma, medical, or obstetrical.

Response is either to a scene, where a ground unit assists the crew, or a hospital to transfer a critically ill patient. Nurses and paramedics are licensed by the state of Missouri and function under treatment protocols that are based upon the latest guidelines from:

All nurses must be a Certified Emergency Nurse, Critical Care Registered Nurses or a Certified Flight Registered Nurse. Many paramedics complete the Critical Care Emergency Medical Transport program and are Flight Paramedic-Certified. St. John's Life Line also provides specialized air transport for Intra-aortic Balloon Pumps (IABP), Neonatal Services and high-risk obstetric patients.

To evaluate the need for air transport, first responders, police, ground units, or hospitals make a request to dispatch. If time and advanced care appear to be beneficial to the patient, they are transported via helicopter.

Assessments include an initial focused assessment for trauma and medical patients, followed by a detailed assessment and an ongoing reassessment. In addition, information regarding the patient's past medical history, history of current episode, medications, and allergies are requested and recorded.

The flight crew functions under a board certified emergency medicine physician. A board-certified trauma surgeon, pediatric intensivist and a cardiologist serve as specialty advisors. The medical crew maintains current certifications listed above as well as quarterly competency, cadaver training, education modules, in-hospital clinical rotations, fitness testing,  survival skill training and core competencies with the high-fidelity training simulator from METI.

Written standing protocols provide orders to initiate procedures in the field. Consulting via cellular phone or radio provides additional communication avenues for the medical crew.

Quality is monitored through a continuous quality improvement process consisting of retrospective chart audits, which assures protocol compliance and proper documentation. Follow-up is done on all patients.