University of Michigan's Survival Flight to take over air ambulance service for St. Joseph Mercy Health System
The University of Michigan Health System’s Survival Flight service will provide emergency medical helicopters for St. Joseph Mercy Health System’s seven southeastern Michigan hospitals, beginning in September, the health systems announced today.
The elimination of St. Joseph Mercy’s Medflight program means 18 full- and part-time employees, and another six contract employees, will lose their jobs.
“We’re looking for opportunities for staff at both health systems,” said Kevin DiCola, a spokesman for St. Joseph Mercy Health System.
A U-M Survival Flight helicopter.
University of Michigan photo
The move will save St. Joseph Mercy Health System $1.6 million per year.
Midwest Medflight operates one helicopter, which is leased, DiCola said. The helicopter made about 450 flights last year.
Survival Flight has three helicopters as well as a Cessna Citation fixed-wing aircraft.
Tony Denton, chief operating officer of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, said Survival Flight's existing staff and equipment can absorb the extra trips.
"It allows us to make the best use of our current resources," he said of the service arrangement.
Patients will continue to be billed for flights, Denton said. The cost of a Survival Flight trip varies, he said, declining to provide a range.
Denton said U-M Hospitals expect revenue gains with the expansion of Survival Flight.
Juliana Keeping covers general assignment and health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter
Comments
chapmaja
Thu, Jun 16, 2011 : 3:58 a.m.
The med flight options are indeed important in the medical treatment of patients. It is not for people suffering from a minor injury, but for those either confirmed to have or suspected of having a life threatening condition. I life in the country, so if I needed service I am 20 minutes by road from the nearest medical facility and given traffic conditions that can be much longer even for emergency services. I would love to have the option of the medflight service if it was needed. I have seen cases where I'm not sure it was needed. As an example, the track regional meet at Saline several years ago had a potentially serious injury that resulted in an athlete being med-flighted from the track to UofM. To my knowledge she ended up being fine, but I see no reason that she would not have been equally well cared for on a ground trip from Saline HS to UofM (granted I don't know all the specifics of her condition). I will also say this, the med-flight systems do become important in organ donation. Often times UofM will use the choppers to transport organs from other regional facilities for transplant at UofM. Unfortunately, the plane that crashed into Lake Michigan was out of range for a chopper and required a fixed wing aircraft which crashed and affected many many lives. With organ donations, getting the organ ASAP is important and the choppers do allow nearly immediate access to the hospital instead of a fixed wing aircraft having to land then either the organ is transfered to a chopper or is transported by ground. I do feel for those who are losing jobs because of this. Hopefully they can be reassigned within the health care system or can get other work.
everydayguy
Mon, Jul 11, 2011 : 3:44 p.m.
Regarding the Saline track injury you reference, I'm not sure of the specifics, but if there was reason to suspect a serious spinal injury, they will often fly a patient (if possible) just because the bumpy nature of our Michigan roads can aggravate such an injury in a bad way if transported by ground ambulance.
Townie
Thu, Jun 16, 2011 : 1:33 a.m.
These 'air forces' are part of the arms race among hospitals at our expense. Who has the latest and greatest scanning machine, helicopters, super surgeons, etc. We used to have local groups that would review the need for everyone to have the same expensive equipment but those boards were discarded under the lobbying pressure of the hospital lobbys. There used to be 'certificates of need' that were issued by the state to make sure we weren't wasting resources but those have been forgotten (does UM have them for their large number of choppers? I doubt it). We need to return to basic medicine and abandon these arms races that cost all of us so much.
a2trader
Thu, Jun 16, 2011 : 2:22 a.m.
Michigan continues to be one of the most highly regulated states, with a very active Certificate of Need program that regulates expenditures and services, including air ambulance (still). You can thank the automotive industry for continuing to support this regulation. It is the reason the arms race isn't as bad in Michigan as in other states where you can find MRI machines in malls and every other doctor's office. The fact that U of M and St. Joes are working together is good. Hopefully of few of St. Joes highly trained air ambulance staff will find a space in the U of M program. If not, it would probably reflect that they weren't very well utilized anyways.
rampage
Thu, Jun 16, 2011 : midnight
This is extremely disappointing. The St. Joe's Medflight team saved my father's life two years ago, then came to visit him at the hospital. They are amazing people.
dconkey
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 : 10:34 p.m.
It makes sense not to have two med flight services as I am going to guess most of the time they are not in flight at the same time. My questions is the 1.6 million savings gross or net. I know that the U of M will bill them for their services. If there are lot of billed flights, St. Joe's may end up losing money in the long run.
zeeba
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 : 10:20 p.m.
Just how useful are these flights, anyway? When they first started using them, they were promoted as a way of quickly getting people critically injured in auto accidents to the operating room, or otherwise transporting people who needed treatment fast. But if I'm not mistaken, the vast majority of these flights are for transporting a patient from one facility to another - something it seems could be done equally well and more cheaply with a larger, well-equipped ambulance for trips of an hour or more. I'm grown dubious about these since my 93-year-old father was transported by helicopter after suffering a stroke at the assisted care facility where he lived. They flew him to a regional hospital, which was 45 minutes away by ambulance,then kept him under observation for five hours before they put him in surgery. He died four days later. I loved my dad dearly, but all in all, it didn't seem like a situation where a helicopter was called for.
lisam
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 : 8:21 p.m.
"The elimination of St. Joseph Mercy's Medflight program means 18 full- and part-time employees, and another six contract employees, will lose their jobs." " The move will save St. Joseph Mercy Health System $1.6 million per year." This makes me sick. I feel for the employees. It's a never ending story anymore. At one time I felt health care employees were safe, so not true.
FaithInYpsi
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 : 11:37 p.m.
with the care they give.
FaithInYpsi
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 : 11:35 p.m.
slave2work, I am wondering why the don't shut down more of their facilities...
slave2work
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 : 9:15 p.m.
whats sad ,is St.joe's. keeps building , expanding. The canton center urgent care was shut down on a sunday 2 weeks ago. now the medflight. By saving all this money why dont you fix your emergency room