AirCare Allows Faster Care To Critical Patients -

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EDGEFIELD, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) – Edgefield has an emergency services helicopter, that will call if they need to airlift you from the scene of a crash or some other medical emergency.

It’s part of a new partnership with Augusta University Health.

We talked to officials with the Edgefield County emergency management service to find out how this new system will work.

AU Health Air-Care responds to the most critical calls in the CSRA, every second matters for the patient.

“This saves us critical time for our most critical patients,” Edgefield’s emergency service director, responder, Garrett Lynn, says.

Edgefield County EMS is partnering with AirCare, using a new technology, called the flight vector app.

“This definitely will help save lives,” Lynn says.

When EMS respond to an accident or medical emergency, they can use an I-pad or smartphone to request helicopter transport. First responders answer a few questions, drop a pin, and the flight crew is dispatched.

Lynn says, “The process takes probably a minute or less to complete.”

Usually, EMS would have to get to the scene, and call their dispatch, then who would then have to call AirCare.

Michael Bisnett, a flight paramedic, says, “It removes one or two middlemen out of the equation. It’s like the telephone game in elementary school and by the end, the message is quite construed.”

At the AirCare command center, they help make sure the crew is getting the proper information.

“We just make sure that the aircraft is in the air and that it’s safe,” Bisnett says.

In rural parts of the CSRA, this app can help cut down on response times, and relieve short-staffed crews.

Bisnett says, “This allows us to do that from the field much more efficiently and much faster and give them better information.”

Last year, AirCare says they did more than 400 transports. They hope this app can grow, so they can help more EMS crews in the region.