A new helicopter base will soon begin its operations and missions this fall in the Quad Cities, expanding upon the efficiency of the area’s current emergency-response efforts and offering residents access to life-saving care. It’s set to be located in Davenport, though a specific location has yet to be determined.
AirCare emergency helicopter service, a part of University of Iowa Health Care’s services, will operate the base. The Air Methods Corporation partners with the University and therefore provides the essential components for these resources, such as pilots and maintenance.
Since 1979, University of Iowa Health Care has been providing medical support by air for 45 years. The construction of the base will help to advance the extent of that support outward into yet another region of eastern Iowa, as bases already exist in Waterloo and Dubuque. This development, then, reflects a larger mission to extend necessary aid in times of life-threatening crises to more Iowans.
AirCare’s assistant manager, Greg Martin, said the program regularly makes 50,000 patient flights, blood products and other useful equipment and tools being carried on every transport. He said the hospital systems and EMS services in the Quad Cities, as well as its people, will only be benefited after this expansion.
“It's going to be for time-sensitive, critical injuries, so having the helicopter center located in the Quad Cities means we can arrive to patients faster, assume care, and then get them transported to wherever they need to go at a timely manner while still providing advanced life-saving measures,” Martin said.
The flights to come will follow the typical model: a pilot and two medical crew members aboard, sometimes accompanied by a flight physician. Flights will take place when requests for them are received from local hospital facilities in the Quad Cities. The destinations where patients could arrive later vary, depending on the circumstances, ranging from nearby Peoria to the distant city of Chicago.
Moreover, if an accident occurs on any roads or highways within or near the Quad Cities, AirCare will be able to perform what’s known as a scene flight. Those types of flights happen when a team flies directly out to a developing scene and then proceeds to work hand in hand with pre-hospital EMS personnel to get injured individuals transported to the proper specialty centers.
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