Marietta Daily Journal
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Thanks to an expansion of its air ambulance program, Wellstar Health System is now providing helicopter ambulance services throughout metro Atlanta.
First established in 2021, the Augusta-based Wellstar AirCare air ambulance program is adding a second helicopter to its fleet, which will serve patients primarily in metro Atlanta and the western half of Georgia.
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The new aircraft, AirCare 2, is based at the Griffin-Spalding County Airport, near Wellstar Spalding Medical Center, and serves people from Macon, to LaGrange, to Marietta, to Roswell.
Like its predecessor, the AirCare 2 supports rural Georgia hospitals whose patients need sophisticated intensive care-level rapid transit. It will be dispatched to reach emergency scenes, Wellstar medical centers, hospitals that participate in the Wellstar Digital Care Network and other hospitals with a need for air transport.
Patients transported by AirCare will receive care at the nearest medical facility equipped to treat their needs, including Wellstar’s 11 hospitals.
“Wellstar is bridging the gap between emergency medical situations and world-class care when every second counts,” said Dr. Phillip Coule, vice president of medical affairs at Wellstar MCG Health. “Expanding Wellstar AirCare to connect east, central and west Georgia will offer a lifeline to patients who must be quickly transported for specialty care, whether it’s a newborn baby with life-threatening complications or the victim of a traumatic accident.”
Since 2021, Wellstar AirCare has transported more than 2,200 patients and flown more than 150,000 miles across Georgia , South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Alabama.
The new helicopter is equipped for adult, pediatric and neonatal life-saving care, making Wellstar the only health system in Georgia to operate two air ambulances providing rapid transport for each.
Zack Lancaster, executive director of air medical transport and a flight nurse and paramedic, said Wellstar’s AirCare program is unique in that it has the flexibility to treat patients of all ages with a wide range of medical conditions across urban, suburban and rural Georgia.
“Providing people with the medical care they need is a special experience,” Lancaster said. “But being able to provide that care in the most urgent circumstances that only a helicopter can offer, whether it’s newborns or kids or adults, is one of the most rewarding things that I’ve done.”
AirCare flight crews are on call 24/7, and live at the base station. The crews for each aircraft also fly by Instrument Flight Rules, which requires sophisticated flight instruments and navigation systems that allow them to transport patients in low-visibility weather conditions.
Flight paramedics and nurses in each helicopter have extensive trauma and critical care experience and are able to deliver sophisticated care beyond what most ground-based ambulances can offer, including infusions of whole blood for patients experiencing severe blood loss, as well as transportation of newborn in an isolate and patients on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation heart and lung bypass machine.
“These technologies in a hospital are amazing, but when you put them on a helicopter, the care that we can provide leaves you speechless,” Coule said.
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