By Allison M. Heinrichs
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Copyright 2007 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
PITTSBURGH, Penn. — A permanent LifeFlight base will be built at Canonsburg General Hospital and Allegheny General Hospital’s emergency medical helicopter will be permanently stationed there when it is completed, officials at both hospitals announced this morning.
Headquarters for the five-helicopter LifeFlight fleet will stay at Allegheny General. Though Allegheny General will no longer have a permanent helicopter it will still have a helipad to receive traumatically injured patients from accident scenes and critically ill patients from other hospitals.
“From both a geographic and demographic perspective, it became clear that locating one of our helicopters at CGH was a more prudent use of resources for the organization,” Dr. P.S. Martin, medical director of LifeFlight, said in a news release. “The move will also enable us to better serve communities in the northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio areas.”
LifeFlight’s four other helicopters are based in Indiana, Butler, Rostraver and Penn.
Construction of a one-story building adjacent to Canonsburg General’s existing helipad is scheduled to begin Wednesday. The building will house a LifeFlight crew, which consists of two critical care nurses and one pilot. Full operation of the base is expected by mid-August.