Area patients who need air ambulance service will have a much shorter wait time after Life Flight Network opens a new base in Hermiston.
A base-opening kickoff event was held Thursday morning at Good Shepherd Health Care System where the base will be located.
“Our vision is that everyone has access to care,” said Life Flight CEO Ben Clayton.
Life Flight is a nonprofit air critical care transport service based in Aurora and serves Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. It is the largest nonprofit air medical transport service in the country.
Life Flight is temporarily operating out of the Hermiston Airport until its facilities on the Good Shepherd campus are complete. A date for the base groundbreaking at Good Shepherd has not been set.
“This is a top-notch organization and we’re honored to be part of their program,” said Good Shepherd’s interim CEO Emmett Schuster said. “These guys have always been good at working with emergency providers in our community.”
Life Flight currently has nine bases in Oregon and 10 in Washington. When Life Flight is needed to transfer local patients to other hospitals, a call for service goes out to one of the nearby bases, typically Pendleton, Richland, Walla Walla or La Grande. Once the Good Shepherd base opens, the wait time will be eliminated.
“We’ll be much more responsive to patients in our community,” Schuster said.
Clayton said Life Flight has 28 rotary aircraft and 10 fixed-wing aircraft that operate across its four-state service area.
Each medical flight typically includes a flight nurse and flight paramedic. Neonatal nurses and respiratory therapists may also accompany patients requiring specialty care during transport.
For more information on Life Flight Network, visit the organization’s website.
