Airlift Northwest Information

We believe all people deserve high-quality critical care, no matter where they are. When a housefire in Alaska claimed the lives of three children before they could reach the right type of care, a determined UW physician had a world-changing idea: If patients are losing their lives because they can't access proper care in time, why not fly the proper care to the patients? Thus, Airlift Northwest, the region's first flying Intensive Care Unit, was born here at UW Medicine. Years later, it still defines how care is delivered in the air and keeps the region within a short flight of the health care they need. Staffed with the highest level of critical care nurses and medical professionals in the country, teams are ready to handle everything from Advanced Cardiac Life Support to neonatal resuscitation, all while flying patients to the most advanced specialty care available. We are a revolutionary idea, resulting from a medical culture, driven to find innovative ways of delivering the highest standard of patient care, even if it takes flying there.