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Gundersen to expand availability with second MedLink Air helicopter

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Submitted by admin1 on Mon, 06/06/2016 - 11:48

To meet growing demands, Gundersen Health System has announced that, on June 1, it added a second MedLink Air helicopter on a six-month trial basis. In addition, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, one of the helicopters will be stationed at the Sparta-McCoy Airport and one at the Decorah, Iowa, Airport.

“Because of our high demand, we aren’t always able to respond when a request for a transport comes in. Adding the second helicopter will allow us to better respond to the needs in our communities,” explained Stephanie Hill, program director of Gundersen MedLink AIR. “Having our aircraft based outside La Crosse will help us to better cover our entire service area. This will give us greater reach and allow us to handle a greater volume of flights from our regional hospitals and accident scenes. In most cases it will also shorten transport time, especially from some of our remote locations. This should result in better patient outcomes for time-critical emergencies such as stroke and heart attack.”

Hill said, from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., the helicopters will be located at Gundersen in La Crosse and only one will be in service. Gundersen will be using existing medical flight crew during the trial. A purchase decision will be made near the end of the trial period.

Gundersen began MedLink AIR services in 1992. It is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and has a service area of 150-mile radius of La Crosse. MedLink AIR is on track to transport more than 500 patients in 2016.

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