As Nashville welcomes visitors from around the world to the CMA Fest this week, Vanderbilt LifeFlight officials are urging fans to take necessary precautions to avoid illness and injury.

For more than 17 years and 13,000 flights, Vanderbilt LifeFlight has been providing emergency care to residents of Montgomery County and surrounding areas.

The Tennessee Ambulance Service Association (TASA) has named Vanderbilt LifeFlight’s Tim Bell the Larry Griffin Paramedic of the Year.

Over the past decade, the Department of Emergency Medicine has significantly expanded its Division of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to oversee the medical care of the Nashville Fire Department and Nashville EMS, the Nashville International Airport, the region’s 911 Dispatch Center, Vanderbilt LifeFlight, Vanderbilt LifeFlight Event Medicine and Metro Nashville’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team.

Vanderbilt LifeFlight will soon be expanding its footprint to serve the West Tennessee region by adding an emergency helicopter base in Humboldt, Tennessee.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is home to the state’s largest adult Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program. And most recently, it became the only adult program in Tennessee with a mobile team that can initiate ECMO on patients transported to the Medical Center by its ambulances.

Vanderbilt LifeFlight is offering ground and air medical assistance for patients impacted by Hurricane Irma.