Hawai‘i Life Flight is an air ambulance provider serving the Hawaiian Islands, transporting patients from pediatrics to geriatrics. It’s scope of care ranges from cardiac and trauma to neurological and burn patients.
This emergency air medical transportation is especially important for Neighbor Island residents who don’t live near major medical centers, Kawika Villa says. “If you or a family member suffer an accident or serious medical problem and needed to be transferred to a medical facility on another island,” he says, “Hawai‘i Life Flight will transport you in a modern, medically equipped and professionally staffed aircraft.”
The Crew
The Hawai‘i Life Flight medical crew members average 10 years of critical care or emergency medicine experience. The flight nurses and paramedics use the latest technology and advanced education to transport patients who may require advanced procedures and monitoring.
New Name, Goals & Service
Hawai‘i Life Flight might be the new name in Hawai‘i’s air ambulance industry, but the company has actually been serving the state since 1979. Owner Joseph Hunt purchased Hawai‘i Air Ambulance in 2006 to improve the quality of air ambulance services in the Islands. The company changed its name in 2010, and is now known as Hawai‘i Life Flight. Hunt vowed to make vast improvements to increase the safety, reliability and responsiveness of the company to give the people of Hawai‘i an air medical transportation company worthy of their trust and support.
In 2006, Hunt got to work right away hiring an entirely new management team. He replaced the older Cessna fleet with newer, faster aircraft, opting for Raytheon King Air C90B models. More than $2 million of custom reconfiguration work was done to prepare the fleet for the demands of Hawai‘i’s medical community. The company also raised the bar when selecting pilots, aircraft maintenance and medical personnel to above current FAA and industry standards. In addition, new positions were created to monitor and ensure quality management and safety, compliance, efficient communications and risk assessment.
Hawai‘i Life Flight’s vision was to decrease the wait times and ensure safe, efficient and reliable response. Hawai‘i Life Flight has opened six bases throughout the state at Li¯hu‘e, Kahului, Honolulu, Kamuela, Hilo and Kona. Each of these bases has a flight crew response time of approximately 20 minutes or less to the patient’s bedside or base airport. Crews actually live in the communities they serve and participate at various community events.
Membership Program
Hawai‘i Life Flight also has a membership program that makes out-of-pocket expenses affordable to patients. Most major insurance carriers are accepted. Hawai‘i Life Flight membership program waives the member’s insurance deductible and co-payment when Hawai‘i Life Flight provides emergency air medical transportation between the Hawaiian Islands.
Membership prices start at just $49 per year for seniors, ages 55 and up. Family plans are also available, and cover the applicant, spouse and dependents to age 18 or 23 if full time students.
For more information, contact Kawika Villa at 808-833-2270, kvilla@hawaiilifeflight.com or visit www.hawaiilifeflight.com.
The Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) has a new family. We are now under the Information and Assistance (I&A) Section of the Elderly Affairs Division (EAD), Department of Community Services (DCS). We also proudly welcome and congratulate Ashley Muraoka as the newly hired director for this great new program. We previously knew her as the coordinator for the Medicare for Participants and Providers Act.
RSVP is also in the process of creating a Senior University. At the university, volunteers will be able to conduct a class or take a class. This will give our volunteers the opportunity to share their knowledge, skills and talents with all generations. We will capture historical and institutional knowledge to enhance our community planning, growth and services.
Have you ever owned something that became a prized possession? One of our donor’s fathers, a retired truck driver named John, purchased a new Lincoln Town Car years ago. For John, the Town Car was a special vehicle, a possession he delighted in maintaining as well as driving. For his daughter, Jodi, a kidney transplant recipient, it came to be a special car, too. Jodi suffered from a disease that damaged her kidneys. John drove Jodi to her doctor’s office and dialysis facilities for 15 years. That Town Car ended up being the place where father and daughter bonded.
The mission of the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai‘i is to prevent kidney and urinary tract diseases. It also improves the health and well-being of families affected by these diseases, and increases the availability of all organs and tissue for transplantation in Hawai‘i.
Falling down is nothing new. We have been doing it all our lives. We fell as infants, as kids, as teenagers and even, awkwardly, as adults. The price for an active, healthy life has been an occasional fall and normally it is no big deal. When young and strong, you fell and “bounced” right back up. It’s a different story, though, for older adults. Any fall can be very serious.
When Lehua Fuller first showed her Waimanalo home to Honolulu Habitat for Humanity staff, they were amazed. She had managed to raise 12 children in her four-bedroom plantation-style home, which was in grave disrepair. There were holes in the floor and roof, severe termite damage and problems with the electrical and plumbing. In Honolulu, Wallace Bailey, a disabled retired veteran, and his wife Frances, decided to contact Habitat for Humanity for help after living in their dilapidated home in Papakolea since 1962. And, JT and Thelma Vasconcellos, a retired couple living in their 60-year-old home in Waialua, knew that their home needed more work than they could afford. Thanks to their partnership with Honolulu Habitat for Humanity, construction started on the Fuller and Bailey homes in July, and JT and Thelma Vasconcellos moved into their new Habitat home in April 2011.