by Jerry Jones
Vanderbilt LifeFlight has established a new presence within Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Patient Flow Center (PFC) in Green Hills to help round out a multi-disciplinary group of staff that manage transfers into and out of Vanderbilt’s hospitals, clinics and out-patient facilities.
LifeFlight’s Emergency Communications Center, located on the Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital (VUAH) Skyport, initially developed this service line to coordinate nearly 10,000 discharges per year requiring transport by ambulance or wheelchair van to improve throughput and capacity management for Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital.
During the past two years, the center began supporting the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Behavioral Health, Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital and its McFarland campus to include both discharge arrangements and urgent in-bound interfacility transports.
The new division, known as the LifeFlight Transport Coordination Center, is staffed by advanced emergency medical technicians and paramedics to not only facilitate the scheduling and logistics of patient transport but also to support the validation of medical necessity and insurance to ensure compliance.
The team joins another LifeFlight group of flight nurse practitioners already located in the PFC at Green Hills, which monitors emergent transfer requests into VUMC and helps provide air or ground critical care transport arrangements.
“Moving the LifeFlight transport coordinators and dispatch position from the Skyport to the PFC is the next step to evolving this team, thereby creating a centralized hub which comprehensively handles the intake and discharge coordination process,” said Michael Wallace, MBA, CCPM, NRP, director of LifeFlight Ground Transport, Event Medicine and Emergency Communications.
Greg Galfano, MA, who was the supervisor of the discharge management team within LifeFlight Emergency Communications Center, has been named manger to lead the new division.
Galfano has extensive experience in the emergency services field. He comes to VUMC after a 16-year career with the Tennessee Department of Health Emergency Preparedness Program and prior to that he served as director of Williamson Medical Center EMS.
Galfano holds a Master of Arts in Homeland Security and Defense from the Naval Post Graduate School, and a Master of Arts in Organizational Management from Trevecca Nazarene University. He is a licensed advanced emergency medical technician and a certified emergency manager.
“I am excited to be a part of the exceptional team at Vanderbilt LifeFlight and I look forward to the new challenges that our team will face as we streamline and expand our capability within the LifeFlight Transport Coordination Center,” Galfano said.
“I want to highly commend Jeff Gray, manager of the Emergency Communications Center, who has been instrumental in the development and evolution of this team, bringing us to this point and preparing us for this vital transition,” Wallace said.
“We are very excited about this next step in the growth of our team and there is no question it will bring enhancements that will not only optimize efficiencies for the medical center and LifeFlight but more importantly enhance safety and drive patient outcomes.”
