The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington is planning an air ambulance expansion next year, according to Seven Days.
Here are five things to know.
1. The air ambulance expansion is part of a reorganization of the regional critical care transport system and specifically targets inter-hospital transfer of critically ill patients in Vermont and upstate New York, hospital officials said via email.
2. UVMC is looking to collaborate with Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center on the initiative. As part of the arrangement, UVMC would staff a helicopter provided by the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team, according to the report. Hospital officials said Dartmouth-Hitchcock would add a Burlington base to its current air ambulance service. Contract negotiations between the two organizations are ongoing.
3. UVMC's overall goals with the air ambulance expansion are to improve efficiency with air transport of patients and expand air transport access. Right now, ground ambulances are used to transport nearly all patients between UVMC and 13 hospitals in the medical center's service area, but the air ambulance expansion would bring many more air ambulance landings to Burlington and save time, according to the report.
4. John Fortune, a UVMC trauma surgeon and interim medical officer for the University of Vermont Health Network's regional transport system, told Seven Days: "We think this is going to result in a tremendous improvement in the care of patients."
5. The air ambulance expansion may require approval from the state's Green Mountain Care Board.
Read the full report here.
More articles on patient flow:
Wildfires close 2 hospitals in Northern California
UPMC Bedford Memorial to end inpatient dialysis services
Sacred Heart Hospital to halt delivery services