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An Emergency Airlift helicopter lands Monday at the new helipad installed near the Emergency Department at Mercy Medical Center. Officials from the North Bend company completed a test run and instructed hospital employees on the procedures to be followed for patient transports.
After a decade-long absence, emergency medical transport helicopters will began landing again at Mercy Medical Center.
On Monday a 1982 Messerschmitt BO-105S, owned by Emergency Airlift of North Bend, landed at the new helicopter pad located less than 100 yards from the emergency room during a test run at the Roseburg hospital.
It took company president and pilot Ed Langerveld about a minute to land at Mercy from the company's offices at the Roseburg Regional Airport.
“That's the whole thing in medical transport, to be able to offer our service as quickly as possible,” he said.
Langerveld, through Ocean Air Aviation, serves as the airport's fixed-base operator. Emergency Airlift has dispatched emergency transport planes from the airport for about four years.
Ambulance crews now take patients to the airport when they are to be transported by plane. The landing pad will allow members of the hospital's emergency team to wheel patients with more critical needs right to a waiting helicopter for transfer.
“They'll be able to transport patients who need a higher level of care than we can provide,” said Eric Johansen, a registered nurse who serves as the hospital's emergency department director.
Emergency Airlift operates offices in North Bend, Klamath Falls and Yerington, Nev. It provides up to 100 transports per month, using a pilot, nurse and emergency medical technician on every flight.
Many of the patients needing emergency transport are taken to Oregon Health & Science University Hospital or Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, or to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield.
The staff at Emergency Airlift decides whether a plane or helicopter is more appropriate in a given situation. Helicopters can deliver a patient right to the hospital and can take away one step in having to connect a patient to equipment in an ambulance. But helicopters cannot fly in icy or snowy conditions.
The hospital's former helipad was removed when the ORegon Surgery Center was built about 10 years ago. The surgery center had to be connected to the hospital and the pad's location on the back side of the building was considered the most suitable location at the time, said hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel.
At the time, the pad was not relocated because of the volume of transfers by air, Nickel said.
Dr. Chuck McCart, a Mercy emergency department physician, pushed to have a new helicopter pad constructed at the hospital. The new pad is located on the edge of the parking lot.
Hospital officials hope the pad will also allow patients from outside the local area to utilize Mercy's cardiac program.
The hospital was sensitive to concerns that the noise from the helicopter landings and take-offs might bother nearby residents. However, that did not seem to be a problem, Nickel said.
“We did a couple of test runs with the Linus Oakes residents and there were no complaints,” she said.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.
On Monday a 1982 Messerschmitt BO-105S, owned by Emergency Airlift of North Bend, landed at the new helicopter pad located less than 100 yards from the emergency room during a test run at the Roseburg hospital.
It took company president and pilot Ed Langerveld about a minute to land at Mercy from the company's offices at the Roseburg Regional Airport.
“That's the whole thing in medical transport, to be able to offer our service as quickly as possible,” he said.
Langerveld, through Ocean Air Aviation, serves as the airport's fixed-base operator. Emergency Airlift has dispatched emergency transport planes from the airport for about four years.
Ambulance crews now take patients to the airport when they are to be transported by plane. The landing pad will allow members of the hospital's emergency team to wheel patients with more critical needs right to a waiting helicopter for transfer.
“They'll be able to transport patients who need a higher level of care than we can provide,” said Eric Johansen, a registered nurse who serves as the hospital's emergency department director.
Emergency Airlift operates offices in North Bend, Klamath Falls and Yerington, Nev. It provides up to 100 transports per month, using a pilot, nurse and emergency medical technician on every flight.
Many of the patients needing emergency transport are taken to Oregon Health & Science University Hospital or Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, or to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield.
The staff at Emergency Airlift decides whether a plane or helicopter is more appropriate in a given situation. Helicopters can deliver a patient right to the hospital and can take away one step in having to connect a patient to equipment in an ambulance. But helicopters cannot fly in icy or snowy conditions.
The hospital's former helipad was removed when the ORegon Surgery Center was built about 10 years ago. The surgery center had to be connected to the hospital and the pad's location on the back side of the building was considered the most suitable location at the time, said hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel.
At the time, the pad was not relocated because of the volume of transfers by air, Nickel said.
Dr. Chuck McCart, a Mercy emergency department physician, pushed to have a new helicopter pad constructed at the hospital. The new pad is located on the edge of the parking lot.
Hospital officials hope the pad will also allow patients from outside the local area to utilize Mercy's cardiac program.
The hospital was sensitive to concerns that the noise from the helicopter landings and take-offs might bother nearby residents. However, that did not seem to be a problem, Nickel said.
“We did a couple of test runs with the Linus Oakes residents and there were no complaints,” she said.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.
