By Sara Waite
Journal-Advocate
STERLING, Colo. — n a medical emergency, it’s important that patients receive the treatment they need as quickly as possible.
Helping ensure that happens is the team from North Colorado Med Evac.
Banner Health’s air ambulance service relocated its northeast Colorado base from Akron to Sterling in 2022 in part to ensure access to medical transportation after Sterling Regional MedCenter phased out full-time paramedics crews for interfacility transports.
Med Evac requires flight nurses to have three years of ICU experience and hold an advanced certification before applying, and paramedics must have at least three years of experience on a busy ambulance service and hold their board certification as a flight paramedic. Most new hires exceed these requirements, with 7-10 years of experience considered typical.
The pilots are required to have at least 2,500 hours of flight time with 500 of that at high altitude, and they undergo additional training quarterly.
The three-person crews rotate among the three bases — Sterling, Boulder and Greeley — in 24-hour shifts. Base Manager Brian Sager oversees operations in Sterling.
According to Med Evac’s website, its helicopters are equipped with state-of-the-art gear, including night vision goggles, radar altimeters, GPS navigation, satellite tracking, terrain alert warning system and traffic alert and collision avoidance system, crash-resistant fuel systems, dual hydraulics, and crashworthy pilot’s seat.
Med Evac follows visual flight regulations; they can fly in rain or snow if there is good visibility but can not fly in fog. At night, pilots are aided by night vision goggles.
The service states that approximately 60% of its missions — or flights — are for interfacility transports; that is, transporting a patient from one hospital to another, usually because they need a higher level of care or services not available at the facility they’re coming from. The other 40% are scene calls, where the crew responds to the site of an accident or other emergency.
Med Evac celebrated 40 years of operation in 2022. The service began operation in Greeley and spread to other locations to ensure faster response time to patients across northern Colorado. Its added its third helicopter and began operating from Akron in 2014, where it was based until the move to Sterling.
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