About Us

Our Mission and Vision

It is the mission of the Air Care Team to safely provide comprehensive, time-critical air medical transport to the communities we serve.

Vision

Through teamwork and dedication, it's the vision of the Air Care Team to continue to build on our strong foundation, providing advanced medical care in a safe and efficient manner. Our values include:

• Safety
  

  Operate with a "safety first" attitude, practice good effective Air Medical Resource Management and seek to mitigate safety errors, ensuring patient safety measures are in place with every transport.

• Communication
  

  Act as a good listener as well as a good communicator of information, providing good information with physicians, staff and patients, eliminating breakdowns and barriers to effective communication.

• Professionalism
  

  Model good manners and behavior, eliminating behaviors, actions and words that reflect poorly on the team.

• Mutual Respect
  

  Respect everyone's opinion, particularly when different from our own, treating everyone with equal respect regardless of the job they do as we also respect patient right and privacy.

• Education
  

  Seek education that will enhance our knowledge base as we also share our knowledge with others.

• Technology
  

  Seek to learn and effectively utilize advanced technology in patient care and flight, searching out new technology to allow us to continue to excel at our jobs.

• Relationships
  

  Build and strengthen trusting relationships with each other, EMS, hospitals, our vendor, and patients, explore new relationships.

• Quality
  

  Perform our duties everyday with high standards, raising the bar on clinical skills, knowledge base and  functional level.

• Community
  

  Recognize the members of our community as we welcome others to join our community in an effort to educate and promote the team and our mission, strengthening our own sense of community to grow and secure our team.

• Trust
  

  Build trust among one another as well as our EMS and hospital partners, eliminating actions that erode trust as we build trust in our patients by delivering confident compassionate care.

• Integrity
  

  Consistently deliver on our actions and commitments, being honest on all levels.

• Accountability
  

  Admit when we have made a mistake and do all we can to make it right, doing what we say we are going to do when we say we are going to do it and holding each other accountable for words and actions that are detrimental to our team.

• Ownership
  

  Treat our business as if we personally owned the aircraft, quarters and supplies.

• Decision Making
  

  Make sound decisions based on fact and experience, to do what is best for the group as a whole.

• Support
  

  Provide support to each other and ensure support from leadership and administration by educating and positively promoting our unique environment.

Our History

The Orlando Health Air Care Team began operations on October 13, 1984, with the first twin-engine hospital-based EMS helicopter in Florida. The service began with a BO-105 helicopter and completed their first patient flight on November 17, 1984.  Quickly the hospitals and emergency responders of Central Florida saw the value of the new air medical helicopter service and the program soon upgraded their helicopter to the bigger BK-117.  The sole BK-117 helicopter was the flagship of the Air Care Team until 2008, when the program expanded to two, and eventually three BK-117 helicopters, to meet the growing needs of our community. As new technologies in both aviation and healthcare became available, in 2015 the fleet of BK-117 helicopters were phased out and replaced with newer EC-135 helicopters.

Since the early days of the Air Care Team, our team has flown approximately 50,000 patients over millions of accident-free miles.  In 2024, The Air Care Team celebrates 40 years of service, a monumental achievement for any program in the air medical industry.  The success and longevity of the program is a credit to the dedicated professional team that puts patient care and safety at the forefront. 

Today, the Air Care Team continues to serve throughout Florida with four EC-135 helicopters. They are stationed at Kissimmee Gateway Airport, Leesburg International Airport, Bartow Executive Airport and Apopka at a free-standing location.

located at the Orlando Health, South Seminole Hospital in Longwood, plus the Leesburg and Kissimmee Airports.  We are ready to provide the care our patients needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.