Med-flight firm, hospital spar over service

Representatives of a company trying to set up a locally based medical transportation service say they can’t understand why Havre’s hospital is not calling them to transport patients to other hospitals.

“At this point, there is just no reason, there is just no cause or justification that we can come up with” Greg Beaty, chief flight paramedic for Medico Transport System said.

Medico owner James Hunt said he does not want an adversarial relationship with the administration of Northern Montana Hospital, but he thinks there may be a lack of understanding in air ambulance services.

“I do want them to know what they are doing before they do it,” he said.

Northern Montana Health Care President and CEO Dave Henry said this morning that the hospital will continue to use its one-call service with Benefis Hospital, where the doctors determine the best way to transport the patient.

Henry said, because Medico sent a letter to Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, it is now a legal matter and could not comment on Medico directly.

“Our deal is, we call one-call,” Henry said, and Benefis will provide, or find, a flight.

Beaty said that, after months of looking at the region and talking to staff and administration from Northern Montana Hospital, Medico owner James Hunt determined Havre should have its own medical flight system and and brought the business to Havre. Benefis Hospital in Great Falls has provided the medical flight service in Havre since the 1980s.

After making one successful flight in June, the hospital administration sent out a memo saying no one would contact Medico or use its services again, Beatty said.

“To this day, we are not getting anything,” Beaty said. “The hospital is blocking us.”

Beaty and Hunt said Benefis has added them to their list of medical transport service providers.

A spokeswoman for Benefis said this morning that they have not added Medico to their one-call list.

“Benefis Hospitals will continue to work under our contracts with our current air ambulance providers, including transport from Havre, and will not be negotiating a contract with Medico,” spokeswoman Karen Ogden said in an emailed statement.

Hunt said he thinks there is some misunderstanding about the service.

“I am surprised at the response we have received from administration with this new service,” he said. “They call five different air medical providers (through the one-call service) and know nothing about any of them, yet when Medico bases here and there has been no attempt to work with us or to work toward supporting a local service.”

Beaty said Medico also offered to provide the same one-call service, finding other air transport for the hospital if its service was not available, but Northern Montana Hospital’s administration refused.

He said Medico has answered every question and provided every piece of documentation Northern Montana Hospital’s administration has requested, but to no avail.

Beaty said the issue raises serious problems in caring for the patients, and in potential medical liability.

If a patient is in trauma or suffering a stroke or heart attack, every second counts, Beaty said. With their fixed-wing aircraft at the Havre airport and their stations — the business rented two houses to hold the flight crew and medical staff — just blocks from the hospital, Medico can cut close to 2 hours off the time to get a patient to Great Falls, he said.

It typically takes the Benefis flight team 2 ½ to 3 hours to get to Havre, get the patient loaded, and get the patient back to the Great Falls hospital, Beaty said.

On Medico’s first — and only — transport, it took about 65 minutes, he said.

“Basically, what it boils down to is, take the business stuff out of it and just look at it from a medical standpoint, the reality of it is … they have a patient having a heart attack, having a stroke, a trauma patient, something like that, every minute matters,” Beaty said. “And if they are not using a qualified person with qualified personnel who can do that, it’s simply medical negligence with delay of care.”

Hunt said his company is looking at options to move the aircraft and personnel to another community, but until that happens he still wants to work with Northern Montana Hospital to come to agreement.

“I just want people to understand before they say jump,” he said. “It’s a valuable and important service to be based here locally. I think it will save lives.”