Published Nov. 19 in The Kentucky Standard

New air medical service begins 24-hour operations

By DAVID MANN
The Kentucky Standard

BARDSTOWN — Air medical service provider LifeNet began 24 hours, seven days a week operations in Elizabethtown Tuesday. The service is used for hospital to hospital patient transfers and accident site rescues.

Nelson County EMS Director Joe Prewitt said the new service probably will not have a large effect on Nelson County. LifeNet, he said, will primarily be used as a back-up for longtime primary provider Statcare.

"At this point Statcare will remain our primary provider," Prewitt said. "We've all worked together, we grew up together."

LifeNet, which is the largest air medical service provider in Kentucky, first began operations out of Addington Field in Elizabethtown earlier this month. Until Tuesday, however, it was only operating on a 12-hour schedule.

"Anything after 9 p.m. we couldn't take," said Tim Smith, program director for LifeNet.

The new service, Smith said, has been able to respond to about six calls since beginning operations Nov. 3.

Prewitt said typically, paramedics make the call if air service is needed when responding to an accident. Dispatchers make the call to various air service providers. They will most likely call on Statcare because of its track record, he said.

"We know Statcare is available 24/7," Prewitt said. "LifeNet would be more of a back-up if Statcare was unavailable."

The best interest of the patient, Prewitt said, will be the determining factor. If air support is needed in a part of the county where LifeNet may be more accessible, it will probably be called upon, he said.

Statcare operates out of Bowman Field in Louisville.

According to Statcare Executive Director John Blumenstock, his company has been working with Nelson County EMS for more than 20 years.

There are fundamental differences between the two services, Blumenstock said. First, Statcare is sponsored and funded by Louisville-area hospitals such as Norton, Jewish, Kosair Children's and University of Louisville and therefore classified as a not-for-profit corporation.

Patients are taken from accident sites to the various Louisville hospitals. Typically trauma cases are taken to University of Louisville Hospital; pediatrics cases are taken to Kosair Children's Hospital and cardiac cases are taken to Jewish Hospital.

Patients transferred from hospital to hospital are moved at the order of a physician.

LifeNet is not affiliated with any of the Louisville area hospitals. It is a subsidiary of Denver, Colo.-based Air Methods Corporation, the country's largest air medical service provider, which operates in 33 states and Puerto Rico.

According to Smith, it has been trying to expand its operations in Kentucky during the past three years. It currently has six bases in the state in Frankfort, Mount Sterling, London, Hazard, Somerset and Elizabethtown.

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