(Yerington, Nev.) – When critically ill and severely injured patients require specialized medical care outside of the community, the staff of South Lyon Medical Center must coordinate with multiple air and ground ambulance organizations to assure the patient is moved in a timely manner. In the majority of cases, Mason Valley Fire Department EMTs provide quick and friendly care to patients being transferred out.
However, in the event that the patient requires advanced or critical care level transport, the local hospital must consider other modes of transportation. In an effort to expedite the transfer of the community’s most critical patients, local hospital leaders and medical staff have partnered with Care Flight to introduce Care Flight’s One Call system.
The One Call system is comprised of an enhanced phone-line that links rural hospitals like South Lyon Medical Center with the specially trained medical dispatchers at Care Flight’s Communications Center in Reno, Nev. The system decreases the work load of hospital staff by coordinating all aspects of medical transport. This allows local hospital staff to care for patients until Care Flight’s medical crews arrive.
Care Flight has served the communities of northern Nevada for more than 30 years by offering helicopter medical transport to patients who require ICU level care. Over the course of the last year, Care Flight has added both a medical air plane and ground ambulance to its fleet. These new options provide alternatives to the helicopter, while simultaneously offering the same level of care.
On July 14, 2017, members of the Mason Valley Fire Department, South Lyon Medical Center staff, and local leaders gathered for a kick-off picnic. Care Flight’s Gardnerville, Nev.-based helicopter and Reno, Nev.-based Ground Critical Care ambulance medical teams were onsite to showcase the new transport units, and to meet with hospital staff and others.
REMSA and Care Flight is a 501C3 not-for-profit organization that provides care throughout the communities of northern Nevada and northern California. Care Flight is the region’s only provider of medical transport that provides all three modes of transportation. For more information, please visit www.remsacareflight.com, or follow the exciting and meaningful work that REMSA and Care Flight do on Facebook.