PennSTAR delivers critical care in the air, across the region
PennSTAR’s flight crews and Metro Aviation pilots combine rigorous training, redundant safety, and a proprietary instrument approach to move the sickest patients quickly to the right Penn Medicine care.
2 min. read
The glow of a TV offers light to the subdued room, the low murmur of dialogue from a reality show about first responders trickling from the speakers, as three guys try to relax. An alarm tone from their phones pierces the room, the lights turn on, the room flickers to color, and the men, wearing bright red flight suits, jump into motion. Art becomes life.
The flight crew of a PennSTAR helicopter on the roof of the Clifton Center in between call.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News)
“An intracranial hemorrhage at Chester County,” says flight paramedic Doug Simpson as he reads from dispatch notes on a computer below the TV. Flight nurse Joe O’Leary walks around the suite in Doylestown, gathering what will be needed for their flight. Pilot Eric Houghton heads to the helipad for the final preparations for takeoff.
A brain bleed demands immediate attention, triggering the call for the PennSTAR team to carry the patient to some of the best neurosurgical care in the world at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
PennSTAR, the critical care transportation service of Penn Medicine, is simultaneously one of the most visible and invisible pieces of the organization: visible because its helicopters are effectively billboards racing across the sky, yet invisible because it is a thread, not often seen, that ties the system together.
When PennSTAR started flying in 1987, it was the second air medical program in Philadelphia. It began with one helicopter, proving critical care and accident scene transport in the tri-state area. PennSTAR now flies a pair of EC 145 twin engine helicopters—the hotshots of the medical flight industry—with a reach well beyond the Delaware Valley.
Since July 2025, PennSTAR has been integrated into the Penn Medicine Capacity Management Center—a centralized effort also encompassing the Transfer Center and hospital capacity management for Penn’s Philadelphia hospitals. These groups together aim to get patients the right care at the right time, especially when time is of the essence.
“Speed is a major advantage of helicopter medical transport, but it’s just as critical that these aircraft are capable of delivering intensive care, ensuring uninterrupted treatment from one location to the next, which is essential to improving patient outcomes,” says PennSTAR interim program director Wayne Riddle.
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