NPMC brings new helicopter service to Hot Springs
Beginning this month, National Park Medical Center, in partnership with Survival Flight Inc., will provide emergency flight service to Hot Springs and surrounding areas using a Bell 407 four-blade, single-engine helicopter.
“We’re excited to bring this service to our patients and our community,” Jerry Mabry, president of RCCH Arkansas, said in a news release Thursday.
“By partnering with Survival Flight, NPMC will not only be able to better serve Hot Springs, but expand to the surrounding areas of Mena, Mount Ida, and rural south Arkansas. We are dedicated to expanding health care services to the communities that we serve, and that’s exactly what this service achieves,” Mabry said.
Survival Flight is an emergency medical transport company located in Kennett, Mo., that has bases in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, including NPMC’s sister hospital, Saint Mary’s in Russellville.
The news release did not indicate how the NPMC team will be dispatched through the 911 system, but a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday that those “key points” will be addressed.
Andy Goldthorpe, base clinical manager for Survival Flight 10-Hot Springs said the Bell 407 that will be stationed at NPMC is a common helicopter in medical transport.
“By comparison, it is a little faster and has a larger area inside than some other helicopters,” Goldthorpe said. “It is equipped with a third seat near the back to occasionally let EMS
students fly with us, or in a situation of a juvenile emergency where a parent must ride to the hospital. But it will absolutely be a case-by-case basis.”
The helicopter staff will include a pilot, flight nurse and flight paramedic, with room for an occasional paramedic student, he said.
One procedure Goldthorpe said he plans to implement to further help in saving more lives is carrying blood on every flight, noting that three out of five times having a blood supply on board is necessary in patient care.
“I have seen several cases where this has worked,” he said.
The flight team is currently going through training to ensure that, from day one, they are prepared for any emergency.
Goldthorpe, who has been flying helicopters in medical transportation for 24 years, said he has pieced together “the cream of the crop” for the NPMC team.
“We have over 50 years’ combined experience on our team,” he said.
The Survival Flight team will be based in the NPMC Emergency Department where living quarters will enable the flight crew to be available 24/7.
“We see the Survival Flight team as an extension of our own team, and we are very much looking forward to having them in-house,” Mabry said.
The team also plans to be actively involved in the Hot Springs community, Goldthorpe said.
“We’re going to be doing lots of networking in the community,” he said. “Already many of the staff have ties to organizations in our community.”
“We see the addition of this service as one more advancement to enhance Emergency Services and the Heart and Vascular Center which was a major investment in our community last year,” Mabry said.
“We have a new, larger ER featuring four trauma rooms and a state-of-the-art Heart and Vascular Center — now we have an additional method of getting patients the fastest care possible. This helicopter service gives us the ability to reach patients in the surrounding rural communities much more quickly, which is especially crucial in the event of a heart attack or stroke,” he said.
Survival Flight memberships are available, to help cover emergency transport costs. Individual memberships are $45 and family memberships are $50. Call 501-326-7537 for more information.