It's a race against time to get trauma care patients to the emergency room, but now one local hospital is able to travel a bit faster.

OSF Saint Anthony announced lifeline helicopters are now able to land at ten area hospitals under instrument flight rules. In the past, when weather conditions forced pilots to fly under IFR, they would have to land at a nearby airport, and transport patients the rest of the way by ambulance. Now pilots can fly directly to and from ten area hospitals, getting patients into the ER much faster.

"...we talk about hte golden hour when it comes to trauma patients and OSF is a level one trauma center so when we go out we pick up critical patients so it's absolutely critical to be out there and helping these people....." said Donald Kilgore a Lifeline Pilot.

OSF has had IFR capabilities since the late 80's and it took two years to recieve approval to have instrument approaches in the region.