nurse

paramedic

pilot

aircraft mechanic ii

aircraft mechanic

Life-Flight-Network

Understand that every industry has its problems and obstacles. Relevant EMS-specific problems include undervaluing staff, misallocation of resources, and an improper preference for the expedient over the appropriate.  
Those issues are highlighted only to point out that LFN is a company that is reactive in posture. Some might prefer a proactive approach within the industry and that is not LFN. The company is a monopoly in the Pacific Northwest and behaves as such. Despite many indications that change is necessary, no movement has taken place because the company sees no need to do so while it is the local hegemon.

Company Dynamic

LifeFlight rapidly expanded from the west coast into the central regions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. They have yet to grow into that space, however, and this presents two main problems:
Firstly, policies and directives are all formulated for the coastal population without much thought for their secondary impact on rural communities. The Chief Pilot was originally in Boise, but resigned when the CEO required all managers to move to Aurora, OR. The “check and balance” was eliminated and negative consequences now abound. 
There is also no understanding of space within the company. You will frequently be told to “time out there” or “drive from base X to base Y” without headquarters understanding the distances, obstacles, mountain passes, or commute time. My personal record was a 500+ mile drive to cover another base. 
Secondly, the company does not understand its workforce. Most employees commute 2-3 hours to their primary base in order to staff rural positions. The company’s policy is that you “time out” wherever they send you without a thought for what resources are available at that location. The majority of my coverage area has no taxis, rental cars, or hotels. “Figuring it out when you get there” becomes hours of driving and being stuck in the middle of nowhere. You will be expected to return to duty the next day without consideration for your previous shift and distances driven. 

Management

The geographical issues could be resolved, but the company power dynamic does not allow it. Upper management is heavy-handed and completely unfamiliar with your problems; middle management is paralyzed by centralized decision-making. Everything is reactionary and no one will give you their guidance or expectations. Nothing gets done until the issue becomes a crisis and you – naturally - are left writing emails explaining “your” failures. Never addressed is management’s failure to plan. No one takes initiative to solve problems because that behavior is not rewarded. 

Interaction With Management

Every company has machinery, buildings, customers, employees, etc. LFN prioritizes its employees dead last by a mile. During New Employee Orientation, you’re told to get on board or find a new job. “LFN isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that’s okay.” Management isn’t kidding. Any suggestions or issues you bring to light are met with hostility and the threat of termination. Upper management is not interested in your ideas to improve the company or its operations. 
I have been told that I am an only a “replaceable asset”. Understand that because of the company’s mismanagement of other resources, you – as the end user – will be expected to suffer the consequences of the company’s inadequacies. Maintenance, aircraft, staffing, and location issues will all present themselves, you will be leaned upon, and then be rewarded with a reminder that you’re replaceable. 
Management is able to sit idle because individual employees sacrifice their time and energy to extinguish a never-ending supply of smaller fires. Considering that fact, the level of disrespect shown to the employees is astonishing. 

Safety

For the majority of my time with the company, I believe the safety culture was wholeheartedly embraced. Of late, however, the company has responded to competition by asking pilots to violate sound judgment and regulation. Specifically, they require pilots to accept/decline flights without the information necessary to check the entire route for weather/NOTAMS/fuel requirements. In order to be the quickest helicopter to the helipad, the company is willing to accept a massive amount of risk. You can object, of course, but see above.  The company line is “your  job is to get the flight crew to the patient.” Yeah, but then what?!

Morale

These issues have caused incredibly low morale. I have yet to work at a base anywhere in the company where employees didn’t feel like the lowest priority – and, quite frankly, after being constantly reminded by management that you’re expendable, you start to feel that way. This has caused staffing issues for pilots, mechanics, and medical personnel, alike.
These issues have also stoked a burning resentment from our hospital customer base. The frustration felt by local hospitals and EMS counterparts as a result of our mismanagement is palpable. It’s mighty hard to retain high morale when you’re apologizing for your company during every interaction. 
Further exacerbating the issue are emails criticizing employee loyalty and effort when bases go unstaffed. The solution offered, naturally, was mandatory overtime. 

CEO

The CEO is wildly unpredictable. The company advertises a “Just Culture,” but I couldn’t tell you what that means to him. There is no constant to firing decisions, safety issues, or anything else. Everything appears to be based on whim and fancy. Employees that turned in their resignation were immediately terminated, for example. That’s just petty. The CEO put out an anonymous survey to gauge the company and followed it up with an email decrying his employees and noting that it’s “too diverse to make everyone happy.” Additionally, we, as employees, have “no idea how hard his job is.” I guess he didn’t get the answers he wanted? 
This is mirrored in the CEO’s Mission Statement. It mentions four competing priorities and eight “hallmarks.” This is a sign of a confused, scattered mind unable to prioritize and develop concise, meaningful policy. That carries over into daily decisions that affect you. 
As an employee, I have no idea where I stand at any given moment. If I leave, I won’t be asking anyone for a letter of recommendation - because the CEO has forbidden them. Seriously. 

Work For LFN If…
You need a job in the area, you can tolerate the low pay of the industry, and you’re willing to accept the poor treatment of employees as a tradeoff for regional stability. This job is best for the indifferent and resigned. They’re the only show in town, folks. 

Do Not Work For LFN If…
You want to work for a dynamic company that is proactive in approach or seek autonomy as an employee; you want a “team” or “family” atmosphere; you believe that Air Ambulance is about treating patients with the appropriate level of care and not about being the first helicopter on the rooftop.

The first thing the CEO told us during new hire orientation was to just "drink the Kool-Aid." I thought, at first, that it was just a tongue-in-cheek comment, however, little did I know that wasn't so much a cute little quip, but some do-or-die advice. 

Drink the Kool-Aid. 

If you're going to work for Life Flight you're going to have to, especially if you work with anyone in the maintenance department. There is no love for that area of the company and it becomes known right away. Think of this area of Life Flight as "steerage" and the other departments as the upper decks, with the Admiral's Cabin being the CEO's office where he decides who he's going to fire that day. 

Don't let the song and dance about a "just work environment" (or something along those lines) fool you - they don't partake in it. I've often wondered why they even preach this because they regularly fire someone as a scapegoat or pop-off and fire someone because they feel it's the right thing to do. I've never worked at a company where so many people walked around waiting for the shoe to drop, because frankly, LFN may as well have been a Footlocker. 

I really do think LFN could be a great place to work for because the benefits are fantastic, the people are great and work hard, and the company mission is a good one. The management, however, is among the worst I've ever seen, and I don't say that lightly. 

I'm not a "burned" employee nor do I harbor ill-will towards them. I just wouldn't let anyone I called a friend work there. You have a honeymoon phase, the CEO loves you, something goes wrong, and you suddenly find a knife in your foot because stabbing your back was too much effort. I saw it time and time again and got out before it happened to me. 

But hey, you get a lot of PTO! Just don't try to use it or else you might get shamed.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Pay was decent heavy flight volume and insurance benifits were great. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The comm center appeared to live to put you and the potential patient in the worst possible position in order to keep a flight. Certain pilots on the fix wing side would practically fly blind and below minimums. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
If you drink the cool-aid and have no other outside experience or a general knowledge of weather this is the place for you. If you only think in a box this is the place for you. If you worship certain people from the education department this is the place for you. Also if you love to talk about your coworkers behind their back rather than face them personally this place is for you. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy with all of the administrative work then the flight volume to deal with, it can overwhelm a novice however with enough time under your belt you’ll get the hang of it.

Life Flight is a company you can feel good about coming to work for everyday.  I can easily say this is the best company I have ever worked for.  My team is amazing, and the sense of camaraderie is the best I have ever been a part of.  As a team, we take pride in what we do and work together to be successful.  LFN cares about its employees and takes very good care of us.  Our wages are competitive and directly based on skill level and years of experience - not how well someone "liked you" in an interview.  The benefits program is unbeatable and the PTO accrual rates are extremely generous, giving employees a great work-life balance.  Management works very hard to keep the lines of communication open with employees.  Our safety culture and quality assurance procedures are the most thorough I've ever seen. Employees have a voice and are truly listened to.  I look forward to a long career here.

Within your first week of what they call, NEO, (new employee orientation), it is plain as day to see, the CEO and executive staff is all about smoke and mirrors. They preach a “just culture”, but this cannot be further from the truth. 
Employees at the corporate division and remote bases alike live in a constant fear of being terminated on a whim, and there is complete disconnect from each department covering all aspects of communication and expectations. 
Terrible management with little to no culture. 
I cannot emphasize enough the level of unprofessional behavior stemming from the CEO, who is fueled by drama, gossip and greed. 
This is a top heavy management skeem with many lower level employees to use as scape goats. 
Please, consider a much more defined and elevated company such as REACH, Emmanuel, or OHSU.

Life Flight comes across as a great place to work. However, after a few months it becomes clear that there is a lack of structure and micromanagement involved. If a problem arises, there are too many hands involved and nothing gets solved. They claim that safety is their number one priority but expect their EMTs to "safely" drive for more than half of their 12 or 24 hour shift with no one else available to drive the ambulance if needed. There are numerous other problems; too many to list off.

The CEO likes to create drama. During orientation, he mentioned that if you don't like how he runs the company, then leave. Everyone is replaceable in his eyes. Sure felt welcomed and wanted after that statement.

I don't recommend working for Life Flight unless you like to be miserable at work.

Life Flight took over NW Medstar and killed careers, literally, before the plane they landed in had cooled off.  They decimated the stellar flight nurses RT's, and Paranatal nurses.  There's a reason only a small percentage of nurses stayed on with LFN. Many were forced out and others would not work for a company that's run how LFN is run.
Ancient technology that is grossly unreliable for dispatching crews, flat out lies to "customers" about ETAs.  It's a shell game, moving air craft here or there to appear to be the closest to scene calls.  Sadly the upper echelon wants the $$$ instead of better patient care.
I could go on for days. If you have a choice go to another air transport company.  As the head of LFN openly stated, if you don't drink the coolaid the get out of the company.

LFN is an amazing company to work for. I've worked for larger companies in the past and felt like I was just a number and was not valued as an employee. That is not the case here at LFN. From the very first day employees are face to face with the CEO who makes it very clear that he has an open door policy and values feedback from all employees. I've never known a CEO to be so approachable and truly care about his employees. I look forward to going to work each day and I'm proud to be a member of the LFN family. The decision to come to work for Life Flight Network is one of the best choices I could have made.

LFN is a great place to work. Typical flights run the gamut from scene responses into wilderness locations to taking very complicated patients from ICUs and tertiary EDs and transporting them to specialty centers. Strong clinical and trouble-shooting skills, a positive attitude, and the ability to function in chaotic situations are definite requirements for the job, but these are rewarded with excellent pay, benefits, and plenty of time off. The organization has an excellent and pervasive safety culture. While not perfect by any means, LFN is an excellent company in which to build a long-term career.

Life Flight is an excellent company to work for.  The employees here are dedicated to their work, and are extremely good at what they do.  Life Flight takes great care of its employees.  Wages and benefits are competitive and generous. The safety culture is top notch and everyone takes their job very seriously, without being stuffy. Turnover with in the company is very low. It is true that team players don't last long - but I've never heard of anyone being let go that didn't have issues leading up to it, or a toxic attitude. I am proud to work here.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Nurse 169 salaries reported	$134,872 per year
Paramedic 113 salaries reported	$97,266 per year
Pilot 58 salaries reported	$122,422 per year
Aircraft mechanic ii 44 salaries reported	$43.10 per hour
Aircraft mechanic 12 salaries reported	$47.45 per hour

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