CareFlight pioneer retiring after 4 decades of vital work
Candy Skidmore began with Premier Health as flight nurse, worked her way up.
Candy Skidmore, Premier Health’s vice president of emergency and trauma services and an administrator for CareFlight, is retiring after over 40 years in the field of emergency services.
During her career, she has helped Premier expand the CareFlight program, expand the system’s reach in the region with free-standing emergency rooms and maintain the Level 1 trauma center status of Miami Valley Hospital.
“It’s been wonderful,” Skidmore said. “It doesn’t seem like that long.”
In 1981, Skidmore began as a staff nurse on the cardiac floor at Miami Valley Hospital. Soon after, discussions began about developing a helicopter program. Skidmore was one of the first flight nurses in the program when CareFlight began in 1983.
CareFlight takes off
Skidmore said she has always enjoyed aviation, so it was natural for her to connect with CareFlight from its inception.
She applied for a position as a flight nurse and began training in August 1983.
“I was a flight nurse for a very long time, then an educator for the program, chief flight nurse, program manager
in 1987, and then program director,” she said.
The program was one of 65 helicopter emergency services across the country at that time.
“More of the flight program was from the military. The civilian world of it hadn’t really evolved much,” Skidmore said.
Under Skidmore’s direction as administrator for CareFlight, the program continued to expand over the next 40 years. It added multiple helicopters and a mobile intensive care unit under its umbrella of services and extended its range to a 150-mile radius. The program currently serves over 450 agencies in 17 counties.
Skidmore later became a director in disaster management and was asked to develop an access center for Miami Valley Hospital. This center was the precursor to what is now Regional Referral Center, which has served all Premier Health hospitals for bed management, placement and transportation since 2019.
“It’s the NASA hub of everything that goes on in the organization,” Candy said.
Expanding ERs
Skidmore has also participated in expanding access to care, leading the outward growth of free-standing emergency rooms.
She oversaw the development of Miami Valley South in 2007, which was Premier Health’s first free-standing emergency center. It later became Miami Valley Hospital South.
“From the free-standing emergency department standpoint, it was a pretty novel idea when it started with Miami Valley South,” Skidmore said.
She said it was their hope to provide access to care to those in need more quickly, as well as within their own communities.
Following Miami Valley South, she helped Premier open emergency centers in Englewood, Jamestown, Miamisburg and Beavercreek.
“It provides that access point, and that’s really the impetus point,” Skidmore said. “They get to care quicker.”
In 2012, Skidmore became Premier Health’s vice president of emergency and trauma services and an administrator for CareFlight.
“Candy is a quintessential leader. She is a national expert in the aeromedical program, transfer center, and emergency and trauma service operations,” said Dr. Jennifer Hauler, chief operating officer for Miami Valley Hospital.
“Her legacy will live on in the leaders she has developed, the knowledge she has shared, and the programs that she has created. Premier Health is a better place because of her, and it has been a true honor to work with and know her.”
While the health network has expanded its reach into additional communities with its free-standing departments, a point a pride within the system remains its Level 1 trauma center, Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. The status is verified by the American College of Surgeons, and from her leadership role in trauma services for Premier Health, Skidmore has been a part of maintaining that status.
Level 1 trauma centers have to meet a threshold of trauma patients each year, as well as be able to respond to a variety of emergency needs at any moment.
“It’s a significant amount of infrastructure and resources,” Skidmore said.
Focus on patients
When looking back at her achievements over four decades of work, Skidmore takes pride in the patients she and her team have helped. She said it is a great feeling when former patients of CareFlight have come back, talking about how the team helped those patients on what were often some of the worst days of those patients’ lives.
“We want those memories to be positive memories,” Skidmore said. “It’s incredibly meaningful for the team and the crew to hear and know those things.”
Dr. Jeremy Moore, MD, medical director of emergency services at Miami Valley Hospital North and chair of the Premier Health Emergency and Trauma Institute, said Skidmore led by example and never wavered from a patient-centered approach in her work.
“Literally millions of patients have benefited from Candy’s strong commitment to fairness and accountability,” Moore said. “We truly consider her a ‘living legend.’ With the standards she has set, we have some big shoes to fill!”
Looking ahead
While Skidmore’s official retirement was Friday, she plans to stay active in the industry.
“I’ll probably continue to work in accreditation surveys for helicopter programs, and project assistance where needed,” she said.
On a personal level, she plans to stay local.
“We love Dayton. I’m married, have two kids and one grandchild, so I’ll have an opportunity to spend more time with them,” she said. “We like to travel, and we’ll have some downtime to just enjoy each other’s company. I’m looking forward to it.”