Flight For Life Teams Learning From Pit Crew Trainer

[James Richardson]

Flight For Life Teams Learning From Pit Crew Trainer

POSTED: 7:41 AM MDT April 12, 2004
DENVER -- The St. Anthony Hospitals Flight for Life team will try to shave 
precious second off response times by learning from an unusual partner -- a 
group that trains race car pit crews.

The North Carolina-based group, 5 Off 5 On, has worked with manufacturing 
and corporate clients, but this is the first time it will give a 
presentation to a hospital staff.

"Obviously, this is a little more intricate," said Breon Klopp, founder of 
5 Off 5 On. "The ramifications are a little more severe."

Kathleen Mayer, Flight for Life's program director, said she pursued the 
pairing because seconds can mean life or death.

"The bottom line is it will be better for our patients; that is what it's 
all about," Mayer said.

Founded in 1972, the St. Anthony Hospitals Flight For Life air ambulance 
program has served as a model for more than 200 flight programs worldwide.

Flight team members routinely beat time standards already in place, but 
Mayer believes the upcoming training session could produce even better results.

Klopp and three pit crew trainers will travel to Denver this week with a 
race car, tires, jacks and tools to give the Flight for Life team a 
hands-on experience. Sessions will include an introduction to pit crew work 
and techniques and how crew members are evaluated and measured.

Flight team and 5 Off 5 On will brainstorm, evaluate procedures and 
mechanics to see if anything can be streamlined.

Flight for Life members, including pilots, flight nurses, respiratory 
therapists and emergency medical technicians, will break up into teams and 
compete against each other on pit crew teams.

"What we are really trying to get at overall is how what one person does 
affects a person before or after him," Klopp said.

The company name 5 Off 5 On is taken from a pit crew motto referring to the 
lug nuts on a tire. The phrase refers to efficiency.

"That's all there is to it in its simplest form," Klopp said.