Baystate, Hartford HealthCare partner on Life Star emergency helicopter service

A LIFE STAR helicopter stationed photographed in Hartford. A new Westfield-based chopper joins those at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, Conn., and Backus Hospital in Norwich, Conn. and in Hartford. (Photo provided)

SPRINGFIELD -- Since Baystate Health, Hartford HealthCare and Air Methods started flying a Life Star helicopter out of Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport in November, the service has flown 45 missions ferrying the most critical of patients to the emergency medical care they so urgently need.

"Time is everything when a critically ill or injured patient needs the highest level of emergency care immediately, such as that available at our Level I trauma center, the only one in western Massachusetts," Dr. Gerald Beltran, chief of pre-hospital and disaster medicine at Baystate Medical Center, said in a news release. "Having a LIFE STAR helicopter based close by in Westfield puts their highly-trained and talented crew closer to those patients in need of their life-saving services when transportation time is an issue in reaching us."

Springfield-based Baystate Health and Hartford HealthCare announced the service Tuesday. The hospitals plan to celebrate the new service with ceremonies this spring at the airport in Westfield, once the hangar and other space there is ready.

Shawn Mawhiney, spokesman for Hartford HealthCare, and Baystate spokeswoman Shelly Hazlett on Tuesday provided up-to-date numbers for Life Star out of Westfield.

Mawhiney said the cost of each flight varies according to a number of factors, including patients' insurance.

Before the Westfield base, patients in the Pioneer Valley relied on Hartford HealthCare bases at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, Connecticut, Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, Hartford Hospital and in Albany, New York.

Hartford HealthCare is responsible for the medical care while Air Methods is responsible for the flight operations and the aircraft, Mawhiney said.

In August, Air Methods signed a $29,000-a-year lease with the Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport Commission, according to minutes for the commission. It's a three-year lease with the possibility of a one-year extension.

The city is leasing Air Methods land at 89 Sgt. T.M. Dion Way near the state police barracks that it purchased from a lumber company in 2011 for $640,000. The purchase was covered by a 90 percent Federal Aviation Administration grant, 5 percent state funds and 5 percent city funds.

Mawhiney said the station in Westfeild is staffed by nine medical crew members -- mix of nurses and paramedics -- and by four pilots and two mechanics.

Air Methods is having the old lumber company building renovated into a facility that will include a briefing room, medical supply storage and bedrooms for the crew.

Westfield-Barnes is also home to Barnes Air National Guard Base and the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, to Blackhawk helicopters of the Massachusetts Army National Guard and to civilian aviation.

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