On August 3rd, 2009, Life Net of New York will close our helicopter base at Westchester Medical Center. Ongoing evaluation of call volumes and area utilization has shown a steady decline in this base.s activity over the past several years. Advances in regional prehospital care and changes in services at some of the area hospitals have precipitated the decline in aircraft usage. It is our belief that we can provide adequate coverage to these areas of New York State utilizing our other aircraft assets. We are confident that utilization of dispatch procedures such as communication center initiated automatic aircraft standbys, prehospital requested airborne standbys, and early aircraft activation will allow our aircraft based in Wallkill, NY and Harris, NY to maintain a timely response to this service area. Life Net of New York aircraft perform automatic airborne launches for any standby requests greater than 25 nautical miles away from the requested aircraft base. Life Net of New York will continue its strategic partnership with Westchester Medical Center and the STAT transport system and will continue to serve as the airborne transport resource for their specialty transport teams.
