West Plains serves as home to Air Evac Lifeteam, the country’s largest independently owned air ambulance provider. Air Evac Lifeteam was  established 25 years ago in West Plains by a group of local citizens who wanted to provide air medical transportation and ensure access to critical  emergency care for their remote community in the Missouri Ozark region.  Although air ambulances were primarily based in metropolitan areas at that time, the company founders believed that people who need air medical transport the most were those in rural areas, far away from the country’s trauma centers. Today, Air Evac Lifeteam operates 90 bases in 14 states, and employs more than 800 people in West Plains, and more than 1,900 company-wide. More than 200,000 patients in need of emergency medical care have been flown by Air Evac Lifeteam crews since its founding. An Air Evac Lifeteam crew, which includes a registered nurse, paramedic and pilot, is on call at each base 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Crew members provide on-thescene medical care and rapid transport to medical facilities, and are trained in advanced pre-hospital care in order for medical care to begin at the scene and continue en route to the hospital. This same training also allows for critical care hospital-to-hospital transfers. The company is supported by an expanding community of more than 800,00members,who pay an annual fee and are entitled to be transported free-of-charge for life- or limb-threatening medical emergencies.Membership support enables the company to provide its services in rural areas that otherwise might not be capable of supporting an air ambulance service.

Memberships are valid throughout Air Evac Lifeteam service areas, so members are covered while traveling. Annual memberships are available.

Air Evac Lifeteam • 306 Davis Drive, PO Box 768,West Plains,MO 65775

Phone: 417-256-0010 • 1-800-793-0010 • www.lifeteam.net