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County hears Bayflite tout its copter service
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET © St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2000 ODESSA -- Michelle Kenly, chief flight nurse for Bayflite I, tells the story of a woman who had been stabbed in the liver. "As soon as we got her in the ambulance, she coded," said Kenly, meaning the patient's condition turned critical. "Because we always carry blood with us, we were able to get two units into her and bring her back," Kenly said. "She ended up walking out of the hospital." Each time one of the three Bayflite helicopters is called out to a trauma scene, a member of the flight crew takes a few units of O-negative blood out of a small refrigerator and packs them into a cooler, just in case the patient needs blood before getting to a hospital. As they met with Citrus County officials Thursday at the medical helicopter base at the Tampa Executive Airport in south Pasco County, Bayflite officials touted the on-board blood -- something few medical helicopters, or medevacs, have -- as one of the reasons the county should allow Bayflite to station a helicopter near Inverness. Both Bayflite, operated by Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, and Tampa General Hospital's Aeromed program have proposed to station a medevac copter in Citrus County. Both hospitals say their medevac station would cost the county nothing, and both say they would provide a helicopter, pilot, flight nurse and paramedic around the clock, seven days a week. The County Commission will review both proposals and choose one in the coming weeks. County Commissioner Brad Thorpe and Florida Regional Emergency Medical Services operations coordinator Randy Van Alstine visited the Bayflite facilities Thursday, just as they toured Aeromed operations last week, to get a feel for what each system brings to the table. Bayflite is no stranger to Citrus County -- it has responded to Citrus emergency scenes 40 times this year, according to Bayfront records. The Bayflite I helicopter in south Pasco is one of the closest ones to Citrus County, but it is still about 20 minutes away by air. Stationing Bayflite 4 near Inverness, Bayflite coordinator Ken Grimes said, would significantly cut the response time to Citrus and Sumter counties. A quicker response means patients would get lifesaving measures sooner, Bayflite director Roxanne Sams added. "It's not that we're bringing a helicopter. We're bringing them," Sams said, gesturing to a paramedic and a nurse standing nearby in their gray flight jumpsuits. "When they get on the scene, they give the patient an advanced level of help -- giving them blood and (inserting chest tubes) -- before they even get to the hospital." Grimes said in emergencies, Bayflite brings the patient to the closest trauma center, or wherever the patient or his family requests. Bayflite is part of the BayCare network of not-for-profit hospitals, including Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg and St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa. Both have Level II trauma centers. BayCare's competitor, Tampa General, has a Level I trauma center. St. Joseph's and Tampa General are virtually the same distance from Citrus County. Aside from the burn center and university affiliation that Level I trauma centers have, Bayfront trauma nurse coordinator Shelly Wilt said, Level II trauma centers do everything that Level I centers can. And flight nurse Kenly said she prefers to work with the smaller team of surgeons out of a Level II facility. "I know all of them, and they know me, so there's a rapport there," Kenly said. Grimes said if Bayflite 4 were stationed in Citrus County, it would also transport non-emergency patients from local hospitals to any larger hospital providing specialized care. By contrast, Tampa General officials said last week that Aeromed would provide such non-emergency transports only to and from Tampa General, and patients wanting to go to another hospital would have to arrange their transportation through that hospital. The two providers also differ on where they would station a helicopter in Citrus. Aeromed wants a spot at the Inverness Regional Airport. Bayflite would rather set up a helipad somewhere between Inverness and Bushnell, at a central location that would cover both Citrus and Sumter counties, Grimes said. But both medevac programs have pledged to be active members of the community, showing up at health fairs and anti-drunk driving events at high schools, and providing emergency medicine educational programs. And both have received glowing endorsements from the ground ambulance crews who work in their coverage areas. Capt. Joe Kanzler of the Manatee County ambulance service said his patients have seen a much quicker response since Bayflite 2 arrived at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport several years ago. "My only complaint is that they get out to scenes too fast," Kanzler said with a chuckle. "It doesn't always give us the time to get patients ready to go. "But really, I can't complain about that," he continued. "They're there within eight minutes for most of our calls -- it's awesome."
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