St. Luke’s University Health Network and Geisinger sign air medical collaboration agreement

DANVILLE, Pa. — Officials at St. Luke’s University Health Network and Geisinger today announced the signing of an air medical collaboration agreement for Geisinger’s Life Flight program to provide air medical services for St. Luke’s beginning on July 1, 2018.

“St. Luke’s is excited to be collaborating with Geisinger to provide excellent air transport and medical coverage for patients in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding counties,” Joel Fagerstrom, St. Luke’s University Health Network’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. 

 “Our Life Flight program has a long history of providing the highest level of critical care emergent transport services to people in need, and we look forward to working in conjunction with St. Luke’s to ensure that patients have access to professional and timely air medical services,” said Thomas B. Weir, associate chief administrative officer, Geisinger Clinic.

Geisinger’s Life Flight has transported more than 60,000 patients over the past 36 years. The program includes 100 team members and operates seven helicopters out of five bases in Danville, Minersville, State College, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Williamsport. Approximately 65 percent of Life Flight flights are transports from one hospital to another, and 35 percent are from accident sites throughout the region. 

This air medical service collaboration will feature a state-of-the-art, twin-engine EC145 helicopter manufactured from Airbus Helicopters. The spacious aircraft is night vision goggle certified and can carry two patients, the care team and specialized medical equipment. The EC145’s advanced avionics capabilities allow flight crews to conduct both instrument-only and single-pilot flights.

St. Luke’s University Health Network currently contracts with Penn Medicine to provide air medical services through the PennSTAR program.

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About St. Luke’s 
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network providing services at seven hospitals and more than 270 outpatient sites. The network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus. Dedicated to advancing health education, St. Luke’s operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing and 23 graduate medical educational programs and is considered a major teaching hospital – the only one in its region. Repeatedly, including 2017, St. Luke’s earned Truven’s 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital and 50 Top Cardiovascular Program designations, in addition to other honors for clinical excellence. St. Luke’s is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of St. Luke’s information technology applications such as electronic medical records, telehealth, online scheduling and pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.

About Geisinger
Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the nonprofit system generates $10 billion in annual revenues across 126 care sites — including 10 hospital campuses — and Geisinger Health Plan, with more than half a million members in commercial and government plans. Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 5,000 medical professionals annually and conducts more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With 26,000 employees, including 1,700 employed physicians, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers with an estimated economic impact of $15 billion to the state’s economy. On March 31, 2024, Geisinger became the first member of Risant Health, a new nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country. Learn more at geisinger.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.