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Vanderbilt LifeFlight Restructuring To Meet Growth

Posted at 5:44 PM, Jan 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-24 20:39:20-05

Vanderbilt LifeFlight has decided to restructure its management staff to better meet the needs of its employees and rapid growth across Middle Tennessee. 

Only one director has overseen a staff of more than 300 employees. However, over the last several years, the department has grown in numbers and added equipment to better meet demands. 

"Our organizational structured stayed relatively the same. We now have the opportunity to really make sure that we have the right staff with the right people," Jeanne Yeatman, associate nursing officer, Emergency Services, told NewsChannel 5. 

Vanderbilt LifeFlight provides seven helicopters in local communities across the state, one airplane, eight ambulances, a communications center and medical services during big events. LifeFlight offers 700 events and roughly 3,200 trips a year.

However, to help better handle the current and future growth, the department is dividing into two separate entities to split the director's position and add more leadership roles.

"Having the ability to be able to manage the certain amount of individuals, that's really important to think about," Yeatman said. "Education is essential to what we do, so the staff is really excited to have support."

As part of restructuring, there will be two director roles over air medical transport and ground operations and communications. Management positions will be added and divided within the entities.

Lastly, a new educator position will be added for ground EMS, event medicine and communications.

"This really allows those leaders out there to have checkpoints with our staff, as we have grown we have not had the ability to have leadership out in the field as consistently as we wanted to," Yeatman added.

Officials are conducting a nationwide search to fill at least seven positions. Anyone interested can click on this link and search for "LifeFlight."