A private air ambulance service based at the Klamath Falls Airport will transport patients needing critical care to area hospitals.
Emergency Airlift of North Bend started its Klamath Falls operation two weeks ago, transporting patients in its blue and white Bolkow helicopter, airplane and ground ambulance. It provides service from the scene of an incident, such as a highway crash, to hospitals or from Sky Lakes Medical Center to other hospitals.
In its first two weeks in the Basin, the service provided emergency flights for four patients.
On Thursday, the service flew a patient needing additional care to Medford in 26 minutes.
Companies offering similar services flew in from Medford or Bend to pick up Klamath Basin patients, adding travel time. Emergency Airlift is the first company to base resources in Klamath Falls.
“If you need us, it’s probably something very critical,” said Emergency Airlift owner Ed Langerveld.
Emergency Airlift has seven fixed-wing aircraft, three helicopters and two long-range jets. The variety allows flights in different weather conditions, and the helicopters make it possible to land at the scene of an incident.
A flight crew, critical care nurse and paramedic are on-call 24 hours, seven days a week. Annual memberships cost $35 per household with no out-of-pocket fees.
The company has more than 3,000 members in its service area, which includes North Bend, Roseburg and areas in Nevada.
Those without the membership could be charged through their insurance or directly.
The company came to Klamath Falls partially because it fit within the company’s business plan, officials said. Klamath Falls picks up an area that was previously skipped over between Roseburg and Nevada. Sky Lakes Medical Center physicians also said they could benefit from the service. Having a helicopter, especially, helps bring response times down, Langerveld said.
“We’re all just pretty excited we got the serving coming in. It will be a benefit to patients,” said Tom Hottman, Sky Lakes Medical Center spokesman.
The hospital and Emergency Airlift are not financially partnered.
Langerveld expects some of the dozen or so crew members will include medical professionals already working for the hospital or area fire districts. They will work for Emergency Airlift part-time. He plans to hire local people for positions.
Within 72 hours of posting a notice that they were hiring, more than 600 applications were submitted.
