Published October 02. 2026 08:44AM<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley Health Network\/Jefferson Health System celebrated 45 years of providing MedEvac operations to a large population including the Lehigh Valley, North Eastern and Central Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Beginning in 1981, the program has transported 105,000 patients who were in need of immediate care at a hospital.<\/p>\n
The program was named \u201cEvery Minute Counts\u201d which acknowledges the need for a rapid response.<\/p>\n
Attending the event were flight medics and nurses, physicians, administrators and support personnel.<\/p>\n
The program master of ceremonies was Bryan Evans, director, LVHN \u2014 MedEvac, Critical Care and Emergency Transport.<\/p>\n
Evans highlighted the professionalism of all who made the program the success it is today.<\/p>\n
Currently the MedEvac program has four helicopters provided by Air Methods, a Quakertown Company that provides the helicopters and pilots that serve LVHN\/Jefferson Health Network.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTOS BY LOU WHEELANDFlight medics and nurses each serving 30 years or more gather in front of Medic 1 during the Lehigh Valley Health Network\/Jefferson Health \u201cEvery Minute Counts\u201d program celebrating 45 years of service to 105,000 patient transports via MedEvac. They include Mike Adams, 35 years; Tim Hickey, 36 years; Barry Mitchneck, 30 years; Tom Rothrock, 36 years; Doug Deutsch, 11 years; Ray Pagenhardt, 34 years; Rich Kuklentz, 30 years; Joe Rice, 32 years and Dwight Bitting, 38 years.<\/p>\n
A very proud flight nurse, James Kish holds son Andrew in front of MedEvac 1 at the Lehigh Valley Health Network\/Jefferson Health \u201cEvery Minute Counts\u201d program celebrating 45 years of service to 105,000 patient transports via MedEvac at Lehigh Valley Hospital, 1200 South Cedar Crest Blvd., Sept. 9.<\/p>\n
Current flight staff and colleagues gather for a group photo at the Lehigh Valley Health Network\/Jefferson Health \u201cEvery Minute Counts\u201d program celebrating 45 years of service to 105,000 patient transports via MedEvac.<\/p>\n
The leadership time for the MedEvac program at Lehigh Valley Health Network\/Jefferson Health includes Ryan Hay, vice president, Emergency Management; Joe Rycek, chief flight nurse; Adam Garger, MedEvac manager; Bryan Evans, director, Critical Care and Emergency Transport; Colin Hunsicker, development manager; Jeffrey Kuklinski, DO, medical director; Zach Matuzsan, DO, assistant medical director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published October 02. 2026 08:44AM The Lehigh Valley Health Network\/Jefferson Health System celebrated 45 years of providing MedEvac…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-298600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}