Allegheny General offers a wide variety of educational programs for health-care professionals.

LifeFlight Observer Program

• Covers the responsibilities and practices of LifeFlight crew members.
• Procedures of the air medical communications center.
• Systems of organization and paging for the trauma resuscitation team.
• Procedures for landing helicopters at scenes of emergency with a focus on potential hazards.

Prerequisites and qualifications

To participate in the LifeFlight Observer Program, pre-hospital care staff members must:

• Work as a paramedic or emergency medical technician currently affiliated with an ambulance service or fire department that provides emergency medical services.
• Weigh less than 200 pounds and be no taller than 6 feet, 3 inches.
• Provide physician documentation showing stability or control of any serious medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart-disease or asthma.

For more information about Allegheny General's
LifeFlight Observer Program call (412)359-4030.

LifeFlight Telecommunicator Extern Program

The  LifeFlight Telecommunicator Extern Program at Allegheny General Hospital is designed for telecommunicators from emergency communications centers within the LifeFlight service area.  The program provides telecommunicators the opportunity to observe and interact with LifeFlight's Emergency Transport Coordinators.

Participating telecommunicators will receive an extensive overview of LifeFlight Control, observe communications operations and accompany the flight team on patient flights.

Prerequisites and qualifications

To participate in Allegheny General's extern program, telecommunicators must work or volunteer for emergency services.  To accompany the flight team on patient flights, telecommunicators must:

• Weigh less than 200 pounds and be no taller than 6 feet, 3 inches.
• Provide physician documentation showing stability or control of any serious medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart-disease or asthma.

Because of the critical and potentially disturbing nature of patient flights, some externs may decline participation in this portion of the program.

For more information about Allegheny General Hospital's
LifeFlight Telecommunicator Extern Program please contact
LifeFlight at (412)359-3555.