by Lin McNulty
A passionate crowd gathered for the Fire Commission meeting at Station 21 on Tuesday evening, Nov. 12.
On the agenda was the current situation with two providers supplying off-island medical air transportation. Representatives from Island Air Ambulance and Airlift Northwest were on hand to answer a few questions, along with Dr. Michael Sullivan, San Juan County’s Emergency Medical Physician and OIFR Consulting Physician.
Orcas Issues reported on this on October 31 to clarify the current situation; however, the attendees at the meeting were eager to hear answers to their questions
And although there were other items on the agenda, including the 2014 Budget for OIFR, it was clear the public was in attendance to receive answers regarding confusion over medical evacuation services.
Briefly, Airlift Northwest, which has been a member of the Association of Air Medical Membership Program (AAMP), recently left that organization. Island Air Ambulance is a new member OF AAMP. The two providers do not have a reciprocal agreement, nor is any anticipated.
Airlift Northwest has been operational in the San Juans since 2007; Island Air Ambulance began inter-island services this year.
An illustration of the confusion in services was explained when a women related a recent experience in which she had a broken wrist and she was flown off by Island Air Ambulance, a fixed wing provider located on San Juan Island, even though she is an Airlift Northwest member.
Public comment was limited, which was frustrating to many in attendance. The OIFR Board announced that a future meeting will be set to discuss the issues in detail. It was not clear whether representatives from Island Air Ambulance and Airlift Northwest PLAN TO be in attendance at that meeting.
From the perspective of Fire and Rescue personnel, its EMTs and Paramedics are alled upon to make decisions and determinations —in consultation with Dr. Sullivan (who is on call 24/7)—at the scene of a medical emergency.
As previously outlined by Fire Chief Kevin O’Brien, presented by Dr. Sullivan at the Commissioners’ meeting and posted by Orcas Issues, the patient triage protocol is as follows:
- Safety: This includes the ability of an aircraft to land based in such variables as weather (both here and the weather where the aircraft is based). There are times when a fixed-wing plane is able to land when a helicopter is not, or a helicopter is able to land where a fixed-wing is not.
- Best Course of Action for Patient: What level of care is required for the patient to be transported? Both ALNW and Island Air Ambulance are certified as ALS carriers, but only ALNW is certified for trauma patients. This has to do with the equipment on board the aircraft, rather than the personnel on board.
- Mode Availability of Carrier: Which carrier has which equipment available at any given time? An effort is also made to not request a higher level of transport than is necessary so as to maintain the fleet as highly equipped as possible.
- Membership: Only after other priority considerations is the air care membership and/or preference of the patient taken into consideration.
Patient membership with either of the two providers (Island Air Ambulance or Airlift Northwest) is factored in only after other more immediate considerations are met. People in the EMS system “are not travel agents,” Sullivan stressed.
Island Air Ambulance is the only service of its type to be certified by FAA, and Island Air received the 2013 Fixed Wing Award of Excellence from the Association of Air Medical Services, a national organization.
Airlift Northwest membership is available for $79/year per household, and other medical insurance is required for membership. Membership in Island Air Ambulance is $55/year per household and there is no requirement for other insurance, although private insurance you have will be billed on your behalf for services provided.
“We are really lucky to have two services providing quality care,” stated Dr. Sullivan. He further recommends membership in both services. “Both services are critical to patient care on the islands.”
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“We are really lucky to have two services providing quality care,” stated Dr. Sullivan. He further recommends membership in both services. “Both services are critical to patient care on the islands.”
My Comment:
This could be financially out of reach for many islander, and the two carriers should be strongly encouraged to work together, rather than leaving us in this situation!
Strongly agree with Irmgard Conley.
agree agree w/Conley & Parker…from what I understand, it WAS possible for us to have only one membership…either one, and still have coverage to fly either one…but the helicopter one pulled out when the airplane one joined the reciprocal membership. That just doesn’t feel very community minded to me. (I get a sense of monetary & territorial greed by the helicopter company) But I’ll certainly buy both memberships and in my time of need I’d gratefully accept a ride from either one. Let the pros do their jobs and until they can play nice, get yourself covered by both.
We would not be pleased by a fixed-wing medevac service which required a further 15-minute-to-half-hour ambulance trip from airport to hospital. While Airlift Northwest can land at the hospital itself, neither Anacortes’s, nor Mount Vernon’s, nor Bellingham’s airport are particularly convenient to any hospital.
We’ll stay with Airlift Northwest, and we’ll demand it from the paramedics as well.
I feel quite upset to read Dr. Sullivan’s comment, “we are not a travel agent.” I joined Airlift Northwest, and felt secure that if I had to be airlifted, I would not be faced with devastating costs. This new competition means that the decision of an EMT team to call in the service for which I’m not insured could cost me thousands of dollars, and they would not be in any way responsible. I don’t like feeling forced to buy double coverage for what would be a highly unlikely but expensive event. Ditto to the Henigsons’ comments about additional ambulance time (& cost).
My husband and I concur with the comments of Anita Holladay and the Henigsons. Surely there is a way to incorporate BOTH entities into accepting one annual agreement!!! Furthermore we have concerns over people without sufficient insurance coverage to pay the additional and significant ambulance expenses for transport from the airports to their hospital of choice.
Dear Jean and Steve,
You are both wonderful people but you did not hear what Dr. Sullivan said at the meeting… he said you have no choice in the matter. He and Orcas Fire decide how you get to the next level of care. That is the way it is– it is the way it always has been. The only difference now is that a new entity has arrived on the scene and there is not enough business to support them both.