New medevac service - HCA Chippenham/Johnston-Willis (Chesterfield County)

[N4VKF]

From their Facebook Page:

We are excited to announce the debut of our HCA Virginia medical flight helicopter, Air Care Eagle (we call her ACE for short). ACE complements our Level I trauma center at Chippenham Hospital and is accessible to all hospitals and emergency situations within a 100-mile radius of the facility. We are honored to become the third medical helicopter in Central Virginia. With our medically-trained flight crew, neuro team at Johnston-Willis, and trauma team at Chippenham, we are focused on continuing to care like family.

 

[dtscho]

Probably a good thing they're calling it ACE, so it doesn't get confused with the AirCare helos.

Dave

 

[W4UVV]

From their Facebook Page:

We are excited to announce the debut of our HCA Virginia medical flight helicopter, Air Care Eagle (we call her ACE for short). ACE complements our Level I trauma center at Chippenham Hospital and is accessible to all hospitals and emergency situations within a 100-mile radius of the facility. We are honored to become the third medical helicopter in Central Virginia. With our medically-trained flight crew, neuro team at Johnston-Willis, and trauma team at Chippenham, we are focused on continuing to care like family.

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Well, they may be excited now but soon will discover the present three central VA and providers in my opinion, provide good service to central VA. They also will discover that if Medflight is available, which it usually is, it gets the first emergency dispatch call. Additionally, if any emergency requires additional patient transfers to MCV, usually LifeEvac next will be dispatched. Maybe HCA VA now will have to be added to a "rotation call list" with LifeEvac. Air Care also is a player to a lesser degree in central VA.

Why is that of interest in an accident situation requiring a what differences does it make which helicopter transports the accident patient transfer to MCV? If Medflight has responded to an accident scene with multiple patient injuries, LifeEvac also will be dispatched and now possibly HCA VA. Unless there has been a change in Medflight's patient transfer policy to MCV, the patient WAS NOT CHARGED any fee. If LifeEvac additionally was dispatched to the same accident scene and transported to MCV there was an approximate transport charge of $4,000 to the patient. I suspect the HCA VA patient transfer charge will be comparable to LiveEvac.

Now, if the accident patient who was transported via Medflight to MCV and DID NOT have Medicare or any insurance he/she additionally was blessed. That's why it is an important difference to the patient in more ways than one.

I suspect this new patient transport provider is licensed like LifeEvac for non-emergency/emergency patient transfer from one in state medical facility to another.

John
W4UVV

 

[BoxAlarm187]

MedFlight is still free of charge to the patient, and the counties that surround Metro Richmond pay a nominal annual "subscription" fee to the Commonwealth to help offset the cost of the flights.

ACE will certainly be doing a lot of IFT for the HCA facilities in addition to scene calls. One of the advantages of ACE is it will provide closer secondary transport options to areas of Amelia, Powhatan, Goochland, and Hanover; should MedFlight 1 be unavailable or a second helo is needed. These areas would currently rely on Pegasus or one of the LifeEvac aircraft for supplemental transport.

FWIW, there isn't a helo rotation list like the wreckers have. The local PSAP has to call each service individually, depending on their in-house policy or the request of the incident commander.

 

[covert53]

Welcome to the club. One more helo to photograph!!! (Thankfully its not yellow and black!)

 

[trainman111]

Although this just started, has anyone come across any frequencies that may be used for dispatch, or in-flight comms?

 

[LeSueurC]

Although this just started, has anyone come across any frequencies that may be used for dispatch, or in-flight comms?

I think they added it today, look under VA Medevacs

 

[n4jri]

Probably a good thing they're calling it ACE, so it doesn't get confused with the AirCare helos.

Dave

I stumbled on the freq a week or so ago, and none of my recordings have someone saying ACE. I'm hearing AIR CARE EAGLE from the ground station following the alert tones. Haven't caught them in flight AFAIK. There was a base name that I couldn't make out, but I saved the recordings because it's pretty startling to hear something like this on 151.625. Am getting the ground side as far north as the Richmond/Henrico line.

We should start a betting pool on how soon the air crew gets tired of dealing with 151.625. If they disappear, note that CJW has a nice sleeply repeater on 463.875. PL 179.9, I think.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[fredva]

Looks like they could have come up with a name a little more original or unique. 2/3 of their name is the same as an operation that flies multiple helicopters in Virginia, including to and from the Richmond area.

 

[richrowland]

The Eagle is doing training flights tonight. Some landings and take-offs from the roof top pad at Chippenham and then flights to many Richmond area hospitals including John Randolph. Freqs in use are the published 151.625 DPL 065, Med-7 463/468.150 CTCSS 103.5 to Chippenham and 155.340 to area hospitals. In the late afternoon Med-Flight also contacted Chippenham on Med-7 same 103.5 tone.

 

[Tpcrouch]

Good afternoon all! My name is Tom, long time lurker and first time poster. I happen to be one of the ACE Comms Coordinators at Chipp.

We fly a Bell 407, and our flight ops are dispatched and followed by Med Trans in Denton, Texas. Most non scene flight comms are done digitally and are not scannable. We have sat comms as a back up. Scene and facility traffic is handled on VA HEAR, Med 7 and Statewide EMS.

FYI, as of April 1, Med Trams provides the pilots and aircraft for ACE and all three of the Life Evac birds, with their flight following and comms running through Denton.

I’m happy to answer any questions, or to find the answers if needed.

 

[trainman111]

Good afternoon all! My name is Tom, long time lurker and first time poster. I happen to be one of the ACE Comms Coordinators at Chipp.

We fly a Bell 407, and our flight ops are dispatched and followed by Med Trans in Denton, Texas. Most non scene flight comms are done digitally and are not scannable. We have sat comms as a back up. Scene and facility traffic is handled on VA HEAR, Med 7 and Statewide EMS.

FYI, as of April 1, Med Trams provides the pilots and aircraft for ACE and all three of the Life Evac birds, with their flight following and comms running through Denton.

I’m happy to answer any questions, or to find the answers if needed.

Is 151.625 being used to dispatch scene responses then, as is it solely used by ACE? I've heard them get toned out on that frequency for scene responses within the last week or so. Do you know who is utilizing 158.4075? I'm using that is the rest of the MedTrans operation in Richmond (LifeEvac), but can't confirm. It would be good to determine which helicopters are utilizing these two frequencies.

 

[Tpcrouch]

I’ll talk to our pilot tonight and see what he says. It must be on a repeater. Their dispatch comes to a sat phone that each crew member is carrying. The radio traffic to dispatch during flight is also done on the cellular unit. Of course, they have UHF and VHF for scene and helipad traffic. It wouldn’t surprise me if we are running a repeater in case of comms loss on primary.
155.340 HEAR
155.280 Hospital to Hospital HEAR
155.205 Statewide Mutual Aid (required of all air ambulances in the Commonwealth)