DANVILLE — St. Vincent StatFlight, formally known as PHI Air Medical, provides an opportunity for Hendricks Countypatients who are in need.
”The big plus is that we can fly about 150 miles per hour,”said Jeremy Utz, base medical supervisor for StatFlight and flight paramedic. “We can get there quicker than most ground units and we can avoid most of the traffic that you get stuck in. The level of care that you receive in the aircraft is great because we have a higher level of training than the average nurse that you have in the hospital.”
The crew consists of a pilot, a flight nurse, and a flight paramedic. Utz said that crews are on shift for 24 hours and when not making runs are working around the base with training.
”It’s kind of like a fire department setting, where we hang outuntil we get a flight request,”he said.
After getting the call, the crew checks out the flight and the weather. They will then go through the standard procedure prior to flight. After the response, they fly them to the most convenient hospital.
One of the biggest things that the crew hears when people look at the aircraft is about the limited size inside.
”There is a lot more space in there than what people think there is,” Utz said. “I’ve never had any issues taking care of any patients that we have transported.”
Even for people who don’t like flying, Utz said that he has seen some who think that the flying experience in the helicopter is “cool.”
One of the goals for StatFlight is to give the same amount of care in the aircraft that is given in the medical center during the flight.
”Another benefit of the aircraft is having an experienced twosets of hands in the aircraft,”said Judi Holsinger, manager of business operations for StatFlight. “In a scene situation, you’re bringing almost the trauma center ER to the patient directly with that skill set. In addition, it’s that out of hospital time that you are reducing. We try to maintain the level of care that is in the facility and maybe elevate that depending on the resources and maintain that level of care as we get them to the tertiary center.”
As a Hendricks County resident as well, Holsinger thinks that it is reassuring to residents to have the air medical service.
Dr. James Nossett, a physician with Hendricks Regional Health emergency department, is pleased with what StatFlight offers.
”What they provide really is a more advanced level of care than the typical ground transporting ambulance can provide,” Nossett said. “They have medications that are specific for cardiac patients that are more advanced than what would be on a ground unit. They are very attuned to taking care of the critically ill and injured patients. Essentially everything that they take care of is critical, that makes them really good at taking care of those patients. As a physician in the emergency department, I feel great about handing a patient over to them to transport to atrauma center or heart center.”
He said if they are a cardiac patient, they typically go straight to the cath lab. In addition, the patients that are typically transported out are cardiac patients who are transferred to the Indiana Heart Hospital.
”Specifically at Hendricks, we flymore out than we would fly in,” Nossett said. “Once they make it to the hospital, if it is a trauma situation, the trauma team surrounds them and starts doing cat scans and x-rays to determine if they have to go straight to surgery or what have you.”
ryan.palencer@flyergroup.com
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