JANESVILLE, Wis. — After nearly forty years of serving southern Wisconsin, UW Health's Med Flight has expanded its services by creating a third satellite base in Janesville.

What You Need To Know

  • UW Health's Med Flight has expanded its services with a third satellite base in Janesville
  • The new base will utilize UW Health's elite physician-nurse-pilot staffing model for advanced transports
  • The Janesville facility includes neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) capabilities on board
  • This expansion allows for a remotely based pediatric and neonatal specialty team with both air and ground capabilities

This new facility enhances the program’s capabilities and reach, much to the excitement of the Med Flight team.

“It’s definitely nice to be able to be out here where we can really make more of a difference than we were before,” Dr. Ryan Thompson said.

Dr. Thompson, along with Nurse Manager Trevor Johnson, had been awaiting the realization of this dream for nearly a decade.

“We’re very excited about finally being in Janesville. It’s been a long-time project, but we’re very happy to be down here serving the southern communities of Wisconsin,” Johnson said.

The new base will continue to utilize UW Health’s elite physician-nurse-pilot staffing model, one of only a few in the nation. This model allows for advanced transports with cardiac assist devices and heart-lung bypass machines. “We can do really advanced transports with balloon pumps, and ECMO,” Dr. Thompson said.

The Janesville base also allows for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) capabilities. An isolette, housed at the new hangar, keeps babies warm and provides necessary medical care.

“If you need a breathing tube, we can do that as well. We can provide specialty gases. It’s a lot, but you got to be ready,” Respiratory Therapist Keenen Deer said.

Beyond that, the new site offers its first remotely based pediatric and neonatal specialty team with both air and ground capabilities. “If, for some reason, the weather is poor and we can’t fly, we always have this. We can go by ground. It will take us a little bit longer, but we can still provide that needed service,” said Nurse Brooks Lutes, showing off the new ambulance bay.

Dr. Thompson said having more options available from the new base was practical and important to feature.

“Most of the time, we’re transporting patients to Madison, not from Madison. Being able to get out to where the smaller hospitals are, where the more rural communities are that really need us, I think is absolutely fantastic.”

The addition of the Janesville base is expected to help these high-flying first responders save even more lives. Med Flight has two other satellite bases, one at the Iowa County airport and the other in Portage. For more information, visit the UW Health Med Flight page.