Relocation of emergency Air Idaho base could save more lives
Air Methods Corp. announced Thursday that it would be relocating its Air Idaho Rescue base from Idaho Falls to Driggs.
For the past 25 years, Air Methods has had a good relationship with Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, transporting thousands of patients from across the valley for medical treatment.
“Response time to traumas in areas where most of our transports occur – this part of Idaho, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park – will be dramatically reduced,” said EIRMC CEO Doug Crabtree.
Air Idaho Rescue will be based at the Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport, where officials said it will help reduce the time it takes to transport a patient to a care facility. But EIRMC Trauma Coordinator Melonie Frasure said the relocation shouldn’t adversely impact patients throughout the greater Idaho Falls area.
“We’re still here for our close patients. We’re the same service, the same everything that we’ve always been,” she said. “The whole reason that this decision was made was to help improve the care for all the patients that we serve. Those that are in our local area and those that are farther out that need to come here for services will get the best care that we can offer that their area doesn’t.”
Frasure said emergency ground crews are the fastest emergency response for close-by residents. If those patients need more specialized care, in Salt Lake City for example, the hospital is equipped with a fixed-wing aircraft the Idaho Falls Regional Airport for specialty care.
“We do have patients that need to leave our facility and go to another different hospital or specialty care area,” said Frasure. “The fixed-wing is actually able to fly faster in the air than a helicopter, so there’s some benefits there, and a bigger inside area that allows them to do a little bit more than they can for some of our more complex patients.”
EIRMC said the relocation will complement the rotor-wing at its seasonal base in West Yellowstone.
Air Methods Corp. plans to make this move at the end of February.
