Board approves up to $194 million in tax-exempt bonds for Vanderbilt LifeFlight

The Health and Educational Facilities Board voted to grant final approval for Vanderbilt University Medical Center to issue up to $194,000,000 in tax‑exempt revenue bonds to purchase aircraft for its LifeFlight air‑medical program and to refinance existing tax‑exempt debt.

The bond package includes about $70,000,000 for new aircraft (nine helicopters and one fixed‑wing aircraft) and roughly $124,000,000 to refinance outstanding tax‑exempt debt on campus facilities, board presenters said. Dwight Seeley, a representative of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the purchase would support the LifeFlight program and bring aircraft ownership and billing in‑house from the current vendor, Air Methods.

The approval matters because Vanderbilt plans to operate the fleet directly when its contract with Air Methods ends. "We will have over 4,000 flights a year, throughout Middle Tennessee that come not only to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but also to other hospitals that patients are…