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Bladen County Hospital officials are serious about caring for patients. But they’re also very excited by a new improvement to patient care that is landing soon at the hospital: a helicopter with round-the-clock access for patients and a community who will benefit from it.

Scheduled to go into service in early May, the new helicopter will be staffed by a nurse, a paramedic and a pilot 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The helicopter is needed, officials say, to ensure Bladen County provides the best possible care to patients whose health conditions warrant receiving medical treatment at more advanced hospitals ASAP.

Located in the coastal plain region of southeastern North Carolina, Bladen County has about 30,000 residents. Its hospital is among the state’s 21 critical access facilities, or those in rural, often underserved communities that provide limited outpatient and inpatient services to residents who otherwise would have to travel long distances for emergency care.

Bladen County Hospital provides care for residents of Elizabethtown, where it’s located, and for people in neighboring communities including Bladenboro, Clarkton, Tar Heel and White Lake. News that the hospital is getting a helicopter for emergency transportation is probably quite comforting to them.

“For serious health conditions, we’re going to stabilize the patient as best we can and get them transferred to the closest hospital, and for us that’s Cape Fear Valley in Fayetteville,” said Brian Langston, corporate director of patient logistics for Cape Fear Valley Health. “We believe it brings transport solutions or connectivity from our community hospital here in Elizabethtown to tertiary areas across the state and allows rapid transport to those patients and services that are not locally available.”

The helicopter, an Airbus H-135, will be housed in Bladen County. Hospital President Stephen Fife said the aircraft is a stark example of Cape Fear Valley’s commitment to investing in, supporting and taking care of Bladen County residents.

Negotiations for Bladen County to be the home base for the helicopter – the third in partnership between Med-Trans and Cape Fear Valley Health System – began last December. Fife, Bladen County Manager Greg Martin, EMS Team Director David Howell and local stakeholders evaluated the need, benefits and potential for community utilization of the helicopter before agreeing it was a good fit.

Through the partnership, Med-Trans provides the helicopter, the mechanic, the pilot and the flight certificate, and Cape Fear Valley provides the clinical oversight, the crew, the facilities and medical supplies, including a defibrillator, a ventilator, IV infusion pumps, medications and blood products.

Additional staff, including nurses and paramedics, will undergo an intensive, 10-week training program for clinical orientation, flight safety orientation and night-vision goggle training, necessary to enhance the safety of after-dusk operations.

Recruitment is ongoing, but officials say they’ve hired about 75 percent of the necessary personnel. Toby Carter, program director for LifeLink Air and Specialty Care, said Bladen County requires three to five years of experience as providers or paramedics before people can enroll in the training that involves critical care concepts including advanced cardiology, airway management and ICU-level care.

As a previous Bladen County EMS employee, Carter said it means a lot to him to know the county’s EMS Department will now be supported with a helicopter – when needed – at accidents.

“We’ll be able to transport trauma patients to the trauma center, and I’m excited about adding the providers, the services and expanding the department,” Carter said. “Anytime we’re able to treat more patients and expand the services to better take care of our community partners, that’s a good thing and great to be part of.”

Currently, Cape Fear Valley Health operates two aircraft that service Harnett and Scotland counties. The third helicopter will allow Cape Fear Valley to move eastward and help patients in Bladen County.

“We’d be the closest access for them to get to the trauma center, or if the hospital has a patient who needs to move to a higher level of care, to ICU, we can get them where they need to go quicker,” Carter said. “The capability of having the aircraft in the county makes all the difference when seconds count.”

Another benefit of the helicopter will be the ability to provide blood to trauma patients in real time, Carter said.

“Getting blood to them right away at the scene of an accident sometimes means the difference between life and death,” he said. “Blood donations are an absolute important piece of what we do.”

Carter, Langston and Fife said the new helicopter will be a game changer.

“We’re here first and foremost to serve our patients, and this is going to help us serve them better,” Fife said. “It makes me proud to be a part of our health system and gives me a huge sense of satisfaction to know that this helicopter will help better care for our community in Bladen County.”