Black Hills Life Flight, an Air Methods program, will open its Spearfish community air medical base this summer. On June 4, the mayor of the City of Spearfish, Dana Boke, signed the contract that approved the base move.
“Air Methods has been a pleasure to work with,” said Mayor Boke. “Their presence in Spearfish will provide a quicker response time in critical life situations for many people and their families. This is very good for Spearfish and all of the surrounding communities.”
The base, which previously operated from Rapid City, will provide emergency air medical services 24/7/365 to Spearfish, as well as Northern Black Hills, eastern Wyoming and Montana, and southern North Dakota.
The Life Flight base will be staffed by 13 crew members, which includes EMS pilots, flight nurses, flight paramedics and aviation maintenance technicians, and it will operate a Bell 407 at the Black Hills Airport/Clyde Ice Field and with the support services of Eagle Aviation.
“One in every three of our flights cross state lines,” said Dave Richardson, senior vice president at Air Methods. “This base move will help improve access to critical care services and interventions for more communities.”
The Black Hills Life Flight helicopter is relocating to Spearfish to provide improved response times to the scenes of accidents and inter-facility transports from area hospitals. Black Hills Life Flight/Air Methods will continue to base the airplane operations in Rapid City and the second helicopter operations in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
“We offer a flying ICU, bringing experienced trauma clinicians to the patient. Air medical services serve as a bridge between rural communities and healthcare systems, and we believe that everyone deserves access to these lifesaving services,” added Richardson.
Air Methods is the leading air medical provider in the U.S., and for more than a decade, its local program Black Hills Life Flight has provided safe and high quality patient care to the residents of the Black Hills and Western South Dakota. The team and aircraft are equipped with the best in air medical technology, including night vision goggles (NVGs).
An open house and ribbon cutting event will be scheduled at a later date to allow the public and media to meet the team and view the aircraft at the new base in Spearfish.
