Air Evac Lifeteam, a rural provider of air ambulances services, will be relocating its Brunswick base to Jesup in an effort to better serve the healthcare needs of residents of southeast Georgia . The base will be located on the campus of Wayne Memorial Hospital .
“The decision to move the base was made as part of the company’s plan to place air ambulances in areas where there is the most need,” said Air Evac Lifeteam President Seth Myers. “This location strategically places us in a better position to serve all of the residents and health care facilities in our service area. We felt this move would help allow us to best utilize our resources to make emergency medical care more available to those who need it.”
The base will still continue to serve the community of Brunswick and the surrounding area, Myers stressed. “We’re looking forward to continuing the relationships we’ve built in this area and will continue to serve them as we have in the past.”
Myers said Air Evac Lifeteam is looking forward to working more closely with the staff of Wayne Memorial Hospital to help provide access to emergency healthcare for their patients.
“The speed at which a patient can reach definitive medical care can have a direct impact on the patient’s chances of survival and degree of recovery. In rural areas, good pre-hospital care and quick medical transport is even more critical,” Myers said.
“We commend officials with Wayne Memorial Hospital for recognizing the importance of having this service available for their patients. They are very committed to providing their patients with the best in medical care. We’re looking forward to becoming a part of that health care team,” he added.
“We are thrilled to offer quicker emergency transport to our patients through this partnership,” Wayne Memorial CEO Joe Ierardi shared. “As we always say at Wayne Memorial, ‘Patients come first.’ They are why we are here and are critical to our mission of offering world class healthcare close to home,” he added. “Having an Air Evac helicopter and crew ready to go around the clock is just another tool we can utilize to fulfill that mission. Although we currently have helicopters fly into the hospital’s landing pad from other areas, we would prefer that our patients and their families get to a trauma care center quicker and not have to wait for that helicopter and crew to arrive from another area. We can do that by having an Air Evac helicopter and crew here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
Air Evac Lifeteam, headquartered in West Plains , Mo. , is the largest independently owned air ambulance service in the country, operating 107 bases in 15 states. The company’s business philosophy is based on the belief that air ambulances should be placed in areas of greatest need – rural communities that are often hours away from lifesaving trauma care.
Wayne Memorial Hospital, whose mission is to provide high quality health care services to all patients, built a new state-of-the-art facility in 2007. It is the 4th largest employer in Wayne County with 84 beds and is the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals’ 2010 Small Hospital of the Year. In addition, Wayne Memorial is one of 20 hospitals in Georgia to be placed in the Presidential category of the Georgia Hospital Association’s Partnership for Health and Accountability Quality Honor Roll for 2010.
“People who live in rural communities are three times as likely to die from a critical injury or illness as their counterparts who live in metropolitan areas – mainly due to the amount of time it takes to reach medical care,” Myers noted. “Our goal is to decrease that statistic by giving those who’ve chosen to live in rural America equal access to quality health care.”
Air Evac Lifeteam crews, which include a registered nurse, paramedic and pilot are on call at each base 24 hours a day. They provide on-the-scene medical care, rapid transport to medical facilities and critical care inter-facility transfers. Each helicopter is equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and crewmembers are trained in advanced pre-hospital care so medical care can begin at the scene and continue en route to the hospital.
In addition to the medical training the crews have, each helicopter and crew is now equipped and trained with Night Vision Technology. Air Evac Lifeteam is the largest air medical company to complete implementation of this technology.
Safety prompted the company-wide commitment to the goggles. With Air Evac Lifeteam crews spending approximately 30-40 percent of their flight time on evening flights, the company wanted an additional safety tool for helping to spot terrain, obstructions, or a suitable landing zone.
Air Evac Lifeteam was also one of the first air ambulance services in the country to offer a membership program. Members pay an annual fee and, if they are flown by Air Evac Lifeteam, they do not have to pay for the flight. Memberships are valid in all Air Evac Lifeteam service areas so members are covered while traveling through Air Evac Lifeteam service areas.
Annual memberships are $50 for an individual, $55 for a couple and $60 for a household of three or more.
For more information about Air Evac Lifeteam services, call 1-800-793-0010 or visit www.lifeteam.net.
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