In August, Ashley Lawrence was using an auger on her farm in Amelia County when disaster struck — the drill jumped out of the ground and spun into her side.
“My left leg was completely wrapped around it; my hands were stuck; I was upside down,” Lawrence recently recalled. A Virginia State Police helicopter descended on her farm, where crews lifted her in. While en route to VCU Health System paramedics began providing blood in the air.
“I swear we were there in five minutes. It was super fast,” she said.
The chopper was part of the VSP’s MedFlight program, a combined helicopter ambulance and police search and rescue service that is headquartered at the Chesterfield County Airport. It’s a partnership between the county’s fire and emergency medical services and state police.
MedFlight started operating on April 1, 1984. The overall strategy that the program employs is that if an injured person can get to a hospital within an hour, their chances of survival greatly increase.
Because it is publicly funded, MedFlight isn’t allowed to run at a profit. And its services for the patient are free. In contrast, a conventional helicopter ambulance flight could cost more than $34,000, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Up until recently, flight nurses from VCU Health staffed the flights. But those nurses were reassigned, throwing the future of the program’s funding in doubt. Currently, MedFlight receives $1.4 million in annual funding from the trauma center fund. That money covers the salaries of seven flight nurses who staff the program 24/7, and it includes operational bases in Abingdon and Lynchburg.
The trauma center fund was established in 2006. The fines and fees generated by drunk driving convictions are what replenish the fund, which goes to hospitals — like Level I trauma centers — that specialize in treating life-threatening injuries. Officials with the program worry that as things currently stand, it’s in effect a “stopgap measure” that does not ensure the program’s long-term viability.
“Our concerns are that [funding] should come out of the general fund,” said Edward “Loy” Senter, Chesterfield County’s Fire and EMS chief.
Julian Walker, a spokesperson for the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, said, “We work with EMS agencies across the board. Hospitals have productive relationships with emergency medical services and transport professionals. As it relates to this particular instance, our hope would be that any funding for this program is not pulled from the Trauma Center Fund.”
The most recent state budget, which must be approved by March 24, retains funding through the trauma center fund, but with a twist — it is indexed to the trauma centers that received MedFlight patients in the previous fiscal year. In other words, trauma centers that received patients would be contributing to fund it the next fiscal year.
The program’s head viewed its mission as a crucial emergency system especially in remote parts of the state.
“A lot of these individuals are in rural areas that could be an hour or more away from a trauma center,” Senter said.
