Houston Healthcare and Air Evac break ground

Houston Healthcare and Air Evac Lifeteam officials broke ground Friday morning to build the new base adjacent to the Perry Hospital, and they will also install a helipad at the Houston Medical Center in Warner Robins.

Houston Healthcare’s Chief Operating Officer Charles Briscoe welcomed all and said Friday morning was a celebration.

“We celebrate and announce the groundbreaking for a helipad base operation between Houston Healthcare and Air Evac,” Briscoe said.

Air Evac Lifeteam was established in 1985 by a group of citizens in West Plains, Mo. According to their website, the goal was to provide air medical transportation and ensure access to emergency health care for their remote community in the Missouri Ozark region. Although air ambulances were primarily based in metropolitan areas at the time, the company founders believed that the people who needed air medical transport the most were those living in rural areas, often far away from a hospital.

Today, Air Evac Lifeteam is part of Air Medical Group Holdings, the world’s largest air ambulance service. Air Evac has more than 130 bases across 15 states. Program director for the base in Americus, Georgia, and temporarily over the Perry base, Chase Lott said the state of Georgia has 12 bases.

While the new base is located in Perry, officials said it will provide Houston County and surrounding counties with quicker access to medical care. Nurse Amy Aldridge, who flies with Air Evac, said the response time can make all the difference in an emergency.

“Just getting patients to the hospital or to their definitive care faster to save their life, that’s what goes through your head,” Aldridge said.

Aldridge gave local media reporters a look inside the helicopter, showing all the different equipment they have. Inside she said they have a defibrillator that “can restart your heart” and a ventilator, “if you need to be intubated, this is a machine that breathes for you,” she said. “It’s just a smaller, compact version of what you have in an ICU (intensive care unit) or an ER (emergency room).

Chairman of the Commissioners, Tommy Stalnaker said they have been working with the hospital authority by assisting with the site work in Perry by installing a storm drainage pipe and detention pond. Stalnaker said the cost for that is estimated to be around $25,000.

“I think this is a great asset for healthcare in this county to have that service availability,” Stalnaker said. “There are more and more patients that are either transported in or transported out by air. No longer will patients have to be transported by ambulance to an area where the helicopter can land, they can just now be transported directly from the hospital by stretcher to the helicopter right outside the hospital doors.”

The staff of the Air Evac Lifeteam will consist of a pilot, paramedic, and nurse, all stationed at the base 24/7. The new base is expected to cost about $250,000 and open some time in April.