Taking Off

NWTH to put new copters into service

By George Schwarz
The Amarillo Independent

Northwest Texas Health care System will beef up its emergency care network, replacing its single helicopter with two new ones.

Courtesy Photo A new ride: A Bell 407 EMS model will join the Northwest Texas Hospital trauma service.

The service, which will begin April 1, also reflects shift in partners, with the hospital teaming up with Dallas-based Med-Trans.

The announcement on March 14 also ups the ante in competition between Northwest and arch-rival Baptist St. Anthony's Health System, which recently announced it will purchase a helicopter and which has already begun building a landing pad on its parking garage.

BSA has recently contracted with Northwest's emergency room physicians, luring them away effective in June and, with an announcement of expanding neonatal intensive care services, has signaled a plan to after Northwest's two strongest product lines.

Frank Lopez, Northwest's chief executive, said his hospital has provided the community with emergency care helicopters for 15 years.

"It really enhances our existing helicopter service," he said of the new services.

The two aircraft will be able to serve as far west as Tucumcari, NM, to Trinidad, Colo., to the north and Altus, Okla. To the east, said Dr. Dennis Dove, Northwest's director of trauma services and regional dean of surgery at Texas Tech University's School of Medicine.

The additional helicopters will provide higher quality care, getting patients to the hospital more quickly, he said.

"The air medial transport is critical to provide high quality care," added Treg Manning, vice president for Med-Trans.

According to information from Bell Helicopter, the Bell 407 model will cruise at about 153 mph with a range of 330 nautical miles.

Eurocopter failed to respond to information requests by deadline.

The Bell is a single engine turbine-powered aircraft while the Eurocopter is a two-engine model, Manning said.

But Lopez, who wouldn't disclose there the base camps for the helicopters will be, said it wasn't the machinery that made for good trauma care.

"The equipment is one thing but it's the people that count," Lopez said.

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Posted: March 20, 2008