Air Methods Closing Bases

[jergar999]

Like JeppUpdater said, 18 closures and 14 openings for a net loss of four. This is a weird business, some places fly like crazy and lose money, another place on a hospital contract or with a good mix of insured patients makes money despite pathetic flight volume. I like the company overall, and certain regions do better with airplanes than others, but some managers just can't wrap their heads around anything that doesn't have a spinning wing.

I'm filling in right now on a multi hospital contract where the main customer has agreed to transport anyone and accept whatever insurance, medicare, or medicaid pay without ever sending a bill to a patient. They are happy to get folks into the system and really take care of them and AMC has given them a discount on added aircraft. It's what I hoped air ambulance would be when I got into it, higher volume with amazing clinical care and the knowledge that you haven't caused debt when you drop someone off at a facility that can effectively treat them.

 

[killbilly]

I would guess "lives a significant distance from a city". Rural medical care is good for setting broken bones and treating the symptoms of diabetes and that's about it.

Don't forget administering Narcan.

 

[NovemberEcho]

Mostly unrelated, but can anyone tell me what kind of medevac flight uses a C182?

 

[nibake]

Mostly unrelated, but can anyone tell me what kind of medevac flight uses a C182?

A CAP flight running really late for a meeting??

 

[deadstick]

Mostly unrelated, but can anyone tell me what kind of medevac flight uses a C182?

I’m not kidding. EagleMed has a 182 a few years back.

 

[z987k]

Mostly unrelated, but can anyone tell me what kind of medevac flight uses a C182?

Probably not a real one.

 

[jcpilot]

Probably not a real one.

A few times when I was working the overnight shift at Anchorage Approach, we'd sometimes get a medevac P28A headed out to Gulkana or Tok. I always figured either you must not be hurt too bad, or you were already dead, if they were sending a Cherokee.....

 

[z987k]

A few times when I was working the overnight shift at Anchorage Approach, we'd sometimes get a medevac P28A headed out to Gulkana or Tok. I always figured either you must not be hurt too bad, or you were already dead, if they were sending a Cherokee.....

Are you still with ANC Approach?

As far as the medevac call sign goes, you have to have an opspec to use it. I'd imagine they didn't and god knows why they were using it.

 

[jcpilot]

Are you still with ANC Approach?

As far as the medevac call sign goes, you have to have an opspec to use it. I'd imagine they didn't and god knows why they were using it.

I transferred from ANC to IAH a few years ago. I loved it up there, but we didn't have any family in AK and my wife had a hard time with the winters.

I sometimes wish we would've stayed up there, though. Sure, the winters were long, but the 4-5 months of 90+ degree days gets old too.

 

[Roger Roger]

It’s only in the last 10-15 years that the turbines really took over Medevac up here at least for the short range stuff. When I first moved to JNU there were 3 Medevac Lears in Southeast but the only prop Medevac was a Navajo in Sitka. They used to send Lears into places like Kake all the time.

 

[tlove482]

I’m not kidding. EagleMed has a 182 a few years back.

They used it for timebuilding and executive transport, not air ambulance.

 

[deadstick]

They used it for homebuilding and executive transport, not air ambulance.

All I said is that a medevac company has/d a 182. It was also used to run parts.

 

[greg1016]

Mostly unrelated, but can anyone tell me what kind of medevac flight uses a C182?

Probably not a real one.

Medevac "LN" flights are not always carrying patients. Sometimes they are carrying transplant organs, sometimes they are moving surgeons to a patient that can't be moved, sometimes it is a repo flight to pick up said organs or doctors. Seems perfectly reasonable to me to have a LN C182 for those purposes.

In other news, Air Methods has a large maintenance facility at my airport and they seem to be doing plenty of business repairing and refurbishing helicopters for medevac use.

 

[nibake]

Medevac "LN" flights are not always carrying patients. Sometimes they are carrying transplant organs, sometimes they are moving surgeons to a patient that can't be moved, sometimes it is a repo flight to pick up said organs or doctors. Seems perfectly reasonable to me to have a LN C182 for those purposes.

In other news, Air Methods has a large maintenance facility at my airport and they seem to be doing plenty of business repairing and refurbishing helicopters for medevac use.

Around here the organs get moved by jets. The live ones get to trudge through the weather at king air altitudes with the likes of me. It seems plausible that at some point someone might have used a piston single to move organs. Heck, when medevac started to become a thing in this region the crews had less equipment than your average first aid kit.

 

[greg1016]

Around here the organs get moved by jets. The live ones get to trudge through the weather at king air altitudes with the likes of me. It seems plausible that at some point someone might have used a piston single to move organs. Heck, when medevac started to become a thing in this region the crews had less equipment than your average first aid kit.

Not sure where here is, but in the north east corridor, you can get around in a 182 just as fast as a LJ35 if the trip is short enough. Not sure where @NovemberEcho 's skylane came from, but I'd venture to guess it was within 100nm of it's destination. A drive that up that way could take 4-5 hours.

 

[nibake]

Not sure where here is, but in the north east corridor, you can get around in a 182 just as fast as a LJ35 if the trip is short enough. Not sure where @NovemberEcho 's skylane came from, but I'd venture to guess it was within 100nm of it's destination. A drive that up that way could take 4-5 hours.

The 47th most populous state, so I reckon it's a little different.