Montana Air Medical Alliance takes to the skies

An alliance that began in the summer of 2016 has recently formalized and named its commitment to combining the efforts of Northwest Montana’s air ambulances, just as new federal laws have begun imposing strict new regulations on helicopter equipment.

The Montana Air Medical Alliance, or MAMA, has united Benefits Health System, Billings Clinic, Kalispell Regional Healthcare and St. Vincent Healthcare with the goal of improving the care of patients across the state that require the services of the medical aircrafts, by enabling them to combine coverage areas.

According to a press release from Katrina Mitchell, director of critical care services at St. Vincent, all personnel involved in the four hospitals’ air med services receive training in assessing critical care patients, working with patients on ventilators, IV placement, intubation and more.

“We’ve always worked together without this alliance as nonprofit hospital-based programs,” Mitchell said. “With everything going on in the legislature, we just decided to formalize the relationship.”

By joining forces, the alliance enables each medical facility to respond to a wider area and assist each other when the need arises, according to Carson Coryell, the director of aviation for Kalispell Regional Healthcare.

This attitude of cooperation will be useful as a new law from the Federal Aviation Administration requiring air ambulances to have terrain awareness and warning systems went into effect April 24.

When older helicopters, such as the one currently used by Kalispell Regional Healthcare’s ALERT service, are grounded for repairs, hospitals will have to rely on other agencies with the same systems.

Coryell said the alliance will provide options for the agencies involved in such cases by enabling them to send personnel and equipment to transport patients within each other’s jurisdictions when one agency is not equipped or available to respond.

“Montana is too big of a state to not have the highest quality of air medical transport available,” Mitchell said.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.