By Jeff Hampton
The Virginian-Pilot
Currituck County, N.C. — After debating for months, Currituck County commissioners could decide Oct. 19 whether to donate $1 million toward a new helicopter for the Nightingale air ambulance.
Nightingale flies more missions to Currituck County than any other area in northeastern North Carolina. A helicopter flight to the trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital can take 20 minutes from the Outer Banks while an ambulance drive through traffic could take two hours. In cases such as head trauma, Nightingale launches automatically.
“They save lives,” said Janet Taylor, a Currituck commissioner. “Many of those people would not live if not for Nightingale coming and getting them.”
The county could give $1 million over seven years, Taylor said. Annual payments would be less than $150,000 per year and half could come from occupancy tax revenue , fees charged for beach rentals.
Nightingale first approached Currituck early last year . In August, Nightingale made another pitch at a public meeting. Taylor plans to get it on the Oct. 19 agenda . “I want us to make a decision,” she said.
But Commissioner Paul O’Neal is among those who believe a $200,000 donation from the occupancy taxes is a better choice.
A financial audit acquired by the county shows Sentara has unrestricted net assets of $1.4 billion and cash assets of $433.6 million. Patients are charged for the transport and then pay for care at Sentara hospitals, O’Neal said.
“They’re making money off of it,” he said.
Sentara’s assets are largely accounted for in facilities and medical equipment or emergency reserves, said Meril Amdursky, executive director of the Sentara Health Foundation. Missions average a cost of $7,500, she said. For those who can’t pay, the service is free.
Nightingale loses about $1.5 million annually. Sentara provides trauma care that also lost money, Amdursky said. About 40 percent of trauma patients are uninsured, she said. Nightingale also takes patients to other facilities besides those of Sentara, she said.
Nightingale plans to buy a $7 million Eurocopter EC145 with delivery expected in 2011, Amdursky said. The current air ambulance is a 23-year-old Eurocopter BK117.
Nightingale has asked three other entities for $1 million donations, Amdursky said. She would not say who the others were.
Two weeks ago in an e-mail poll, Currituck could not find other governments who were asked to donate, including Norfolk, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, said Gwen Keene, clerk to the board. No other counties in northeastern North Carolina had been asked for a donation.
However, the Obici Healthcare Foundation in Suffolk has been approached for a contribution, said Gina Pitrone, the group’s executive director. The organization serves w estern Hampton Roads and Gates County, N.C.
The Williamsburg Community Health Foundation also received a request for funding but declined, said Kerry Mellette, the foundation’s president. The foundation is focusing its grants this year on segments of the community shown to be disproportionately affected by the recession, she said.
The Currituck commissioners appear to be split on the issue, County Manager Dan Scanlon said.
Nightingale flew 634 missions in 2008, with 233 of those to northeastern North Carolina.
Currituck County led six other counties in the region in the number of Nightingale on-scene emergency missions with 59, up from 36 in 2007, according to statistics provided by Currituck County Emergency Medical Services.
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