Billings Clinic–Logan Health to integrate air ambulance services

Billings Clinic-Logan Health is considering outsourcing aviation operations for A.L.E.R.T. as it integrates the two medical systems’ air ambulance services.

Co-Chief Executive Officer Kevin Abel said the health care system is in the process of coordinating A.L.E.R.T. and Billings Clinic’s MedFlight with a goal of creating an “inter-connected Montana-Wyoming rural trauma and emergency transport program.” The services are expected to retain the A.L.E.R.T. and MedFlight branding.

One step they’ve taken so far is posting an executive director position that will oversee the programs, Abel said. 

“Our feeling was, rather than having two leaders and two uncoordinated programs and two groups doing their own thing — since we have a lot of interlap throughout the state — we could get it all under one executive leader,” he said.

Hospital administrators are analyzing both programs, looking at what they can learn from one another, he said. Though Abel said A.L.E.R.T.’s clinical operations will stay the same, officials are looking into outsourcing the aviation operations.  

Logan Health employs 12 pilots and mechanics. Logan Health Vice President of Marketing and Communications Mellody Sharpton said if the hospital decides to move to a partner model, there could be language in the contract to include employment options for those individuals, since the need for local aviation staff would remain. 

“It’s a decision we're going to need to make as we're collecting information as to what is the best model from a patient care and a safety standpoint moving forward,” Abel said.  

Billings Clinic partners with Edward Jet Center in Billings, which oversees the fixed wing aircraft, and Metro Aviation, which maintains its helicopters, according to Billings Clinic’s website. The hospital fields two Beechcraft King Air airplanes and one Eurocopter EC145 helicopter.  

The A.L.E.R.T. fleet boasts two Bell 407 helicopters and a fixed-wing airplane, a Pilatus PC-12.  

“We're going through the analysis, but it's very common for the FAA and the pilots and the mechanics to be [managed by] an external company. So that is a common way of doing it, the way Billings Clinic is doing it,” Abel said. 

The clinical side of their air ambulance service will remain the same, he said. Those positions would still be managed by the hospital. A.L.E.R.T. would still be used in search and rescue calls, transporting patients to specialized care and responding to the scene of emergencies.  

Abel believes having centralized leadership and ensuring the services have the same policies and procedures will benefit patients. Standardization improves care by borrowing best practices from each program, including Billings Clinic’s new mobile extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, program, he said. 

ECMO serves as life support for patients whose heart or lungs can’t perform their normal functions. It provides a bridge to recovery for patients with reversible lung failure, like respiratory distress due to the flu, pneumonia, drowning or pancreatitis. The goal is to stabilize patients long enough to fix the problem that caused their illness and minimize trauma to lung tissue so they can recover, according to a release from Billings Clinic in July.  

Abel said the combined services will benefit people who live in between the Billings area and Northwest Montana, too. Coordinated care between facilities is a major goal for the integrated health care system, and Abel said coordinated air ambulance programs means that they can reach patients faster and make a better-informed decision about where they should be transported to — factoring in weather conditions and clinical availability, for example.  

Abel said billing is expected to stay the same for A.L.E.R.T. patients. He said they are looking to finish their analysis and make decisions in the next six months.  

To learn more about Billings Clinic’s MedFlight program, visit www.billingsclinic.com/services-specialties/medflight-air-ambulance/.  

More information about A.L.E.R.T. can be found at www.logan.org/services/emergency-services/a-l-e-r-t-program/. 

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.