In 1993, Emanuel Life Flight merged with Aircare, a Providence Health System flight program; our name was changed to reflect this milestone, and Emanuel Life Flight became Life Flight Network. This merger and name change came in concert with the decision of the three largest health care providers in the Portland metropolitan area to jointly participate in the ownership and overall operation of Life Flight Network; day-to-day operation of Life Flight Network remained under the auspices of Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

In 2006, the consortium made a strategic decision to transfer the organization from the governance of the hospital structure and separate it into its own entity. The consortium recognized Life Flight Network would need the strength of its own organizational structure if it was going to survive in the rapidly growing and increasingly competitive air medical industry. On October 1, 2007, Life Flight Network was separated from the hospital structure and began operations under its own steam.

In 2016 Northwest MedStar became part of Life Flight Network, adding six base locations to the Life Flight Network footprint: Brewster, Moses Lake, Richland, Pullman, Spokane, Washington, and Missoula, Montana, and in-house neonatal transport capabilities. Northwest MedStar was formed in 1994 when Sacred Heart’s Heartflight and Deaconess’ Lifebird air transport programs merged together. Similar to how Northwest MedStar was formed, its integration into Life Flight Network provided a framework to pull best practices from both well-established and respected organizations to better serve our communities and more efficiently respond to people in need of life-saving critical care transportation.