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Air Medical Transport

For more than 40 years, HealthNet Aeromedical Services has been a critical link in the emergency care chain across West Virginia and Central Appalachia. We partner with hospitals, EMS agencies, public safety agencies, and community organizations to enhance access to advanced medical care—providing fast, safe, and highly coordinated air medical transport for patients.

Our flight teams bring advanced clinical care directly to the scene of an emergency or to hospitals requiring rapid transfer to higher levels of care. Every mission is centered on one goal: saving lives through timely, expert transport.

 

We operate a fleet of 10 medically equipped helicopters staffed by highly trained flight nurses, paramedics, and pilots stragically based throughout West Virginia. Our teams respond 24/7 to support:

 

  • Scene Responses – Rapid deployment to traumatic injuries, medical emergencies, and remote locations where ground transport may be delayed or limited.

 

  • Interfacility Transfers – Safe transport between hospitals when patients need specialized services such as trauma care, cardiac intervention, stroke treatment, neonatal care, or surgical expertise.

 

  • Critical Care Transport – Flight crews deliver ICU-level care in the air, using advanced monitoring, medications, and life-support equipment to care for critically ill or injured patients throughout transport.

Medical Facilities

HealthNet Aeromedical Services Flight Teams can manage the following types of medical patients:

  • Cardiac patient with unstable angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure requiring specialized cardiac care.
  • Cardiac patient with life threatening arrhythmias, or patients requiring cardiac catheterization lab, pacemaker placement, or high-level cardiopulmonary support such as ECMO or Impella devices.
  • Acute pulmonary emboli.
  • Victims of neurologic trauma or cerebral vascular emergency requiring specialized diagnostic services or intervention not available locally.
  • Multi-system or severe single system traumatic injuries.
  • Limb threatening emergencies.
  • Newborns requiring transfer to a facility with a Neonatal ICU. Patient will be transported in conjunction with neonatal transport team.
  • Newborn or pediatric patients requiring specialized surgery to correct life or limb-threatening congenital anomalies. Patient will be transported in conjunction with neonatal or pediatric critical care transport team.
  • Obstetrical patients at high risk of insult to the fetus or mother without specialized diagnostic or therapeutic care unavailable locally. In some cases, the patient will be transported in conjunction with a high-risk obstetric transport team.

It is the philosophy of HealthNet Aeromedical Services to reserve its treatment and transport capabilities for only the critically ill and injured. Every transport is reviewed for appropriateness after the transport and an extensive utilization and quality assurance program is in effect. However, the difficulty of establishing a definitive diagnosis in the emergency care setting is widely known and may result in transfer of an occasional patient who is later proven not to be critically ill or injured.

  • Have the Consent to Treat and the Medical Necessity for Transport forms signed. These documents can be found in the Patient Transport packet.
  • Copy the patient chart and have X-Rays/CTs available.
  • Include a copy of the patient’s insurance card if available.
  • Give all patient valuables and belongings to family members.
  • Explain to the patient and/or family the reason for the transfer and the need for a helicopter.
  • Upon the flight team’s arrival, have someone available to give report on the patient’s current condition and treatment provided. Provide any pertinent previous medical history and medications that are currently being given or that have been given.
  • Have at least two IVs established.
  • Management of the patient’s airway is of critical importance. Ensure that the most definitive airway management is performed prior to transport. The flight crew can assist you with this if necessary.
  • If the patient is on IV medications, please make certain there is enough of the medication available to infuse during the transport.
  • Trauma patients must have spinal motion restricted and any extremity fractures splinted.

Emergency Medical Service Providers

HealthNet Aeromedical Services Flight Teams can manage the following types of trauma patients:

Victims of traumatic injury judged to be at statistically highest risk of lethal blood loss based on one or more of the following mechanisms of injury and located more than twenty-five minutes from the nearest appropriate facility.

  • Falls of greater than 20 feet.
  • Motor vehicle accident with combined impact speed exceeding 30 mph. 
  • Motor vehicle accident involving a fatality.
  • Roll-over motor vehicle accidents.
  • Motor vehicle accidents with a greater than one-foot space intrusion into the passenger compartment.
  • Motor vehicle accidents involving the ejection of the patient.
  • Motorcycle accident with injury.
  • Evidence of high energy dissipation.

Victims of traumatic injury, including burns and drowning with two or more of the following physiologic findings and located more than twenty minutes from the nearest appropriate facility:

  • Blood pressure below 90 systolic.
  • Heart rate greater than 110 in an adult.
  • Capillary refill exceeding two seconds.
  • Altered level of consciousness.
  • Chest or abdominal tenderness.
  • Respiratory distress.
  • Evidence of paralysis of extremities.
  • Patients suffering from thermal, chemical, or radiation burns exceeding fifteen percent of the total body surface area or the airway requiring the specialized care available only in a Burn Center.

Victims of traumatic injury with one or more of the following anatomic findings:

  • Penetrating injury to the head, neck or torso.
  • Severe blunt trauma to the head, neck or torso.
  • Amputation proximal to the wrist or ankle.
  • Uncorrected airway obstruction.
  • Evidence of life-threatening thoracic injury, flail chest, tension pneumothorax.
  • Loss of palpable pulses distal to an extremity injury.
  • Victims of multiple casualty incidents.

It is the philosophy of HealthNet Aeromedical Services to reserve its treatment and transport capabilities for only the critically ill and injured. Every transport is reviewed for appropriateness after the transport and an extensive utilization and quality assurance program is in effect. However, the difficulty of establishing a definitive diagnosis in the emergency care setting is widely known and may result in transfer of an occasional patient who is later proven not to be critically ill or injured. 

  • Upon the flight team’s arrival, have someone available to give report on the patient’s current condition and treatment provided. Provide any pertinent previous medical history and medications that are currently being given or that have been given.
  • If ALS providers are on scene, have at least two IVs established.
  • Management of the patient’s airway is of critical importance. Ensure that the most definitive airway management is performed prior to transport. The flight crew can assist you with this if necessary.
  • Trauma patients must have spinal motion restricted and any extremity fractures splinted.

    Landing Zone Preparation
    Selection of the preferred landing site is one of the most important components of safe helicopter operations. A site that is too small, filled with debris or obstructed by trees or wires is a recipe for disaster. Careful checks of a site can help speed patient transport by reducing the likelihood of a change in the landing zone (LZ) location.

Landing Zone Selection

  • Minimum of 100’ x 100’ level surface required
  • Area must be clear of overhead wires, trees, towers, and other obstacles
  • Area should be clear of debris and loose objects
  • Report high-tension power lines within one-mile radius of desire LZ

Nighttime Landing Zone Preparation

  • Mark area with low-beam headlights crossed to designate the LZ. Battery powered lights can also be arranged in a triangle or square.
  • Leave all emergency lights on unless you are instructed by the crew to turn them off
  • Never shine spotlights or flashlights at the aircraft

Final Approach/Landing

  • All spectators must stay at least 150 feet from the aircraft
  • Responders and their vehicles must stay at least 50 feet from the aircraft

Approaching Aircraft

  • When directed by flight team, approach the aircraft from the front. NEVER approach from the rear of the aircraft
  • Do not assist flight team with opening or closing of doors
  • If help is needed for loading or off-loading of patients, the flight team will designate personnel on scene to assist 

    Click Here to Download LZ Guidelines

To maximize safety during scene flight operations, we provide landing zone training free of charge to fire departments, EMS, law enforcement, industrial companies, park services, and other comparable agencies.

Request LZ Safety Training

Aircraft

Our aircraft are outfitted with the same level of technology found in leading emergency departments and critical care units, allowing our clinicians to begin life-saving treatment the moment they arrive on scene.

Our capabilities include:

  • Advanced airway management

  • Cardiac monitoring and medication therapy

  • Mechanical ventilation

  • Neonatal and pediatric transport support

  • Rapid blood product administration

  • Continuous patient monitoring during flight

 

Flight Clinicians

Our clinical teams consist of flight paramedics and flight nurses, who have extensive experience in emergency medicine, critical care, pre-hospital operations, and aviation safety. Team members undergo rigorous ongoing training, simulation, and certification to ensure exceptional care under the most demanding conditions. The entire flight crew works seamlessly together to deliver safe, precise, and efficient transport.



Communication Dispatch Centers

HealthNet Aeromedical Services maintains continuous, 24/7 communication with our medical transport teams through three dedicated dispatch and medical command centers strategically located throughout the state. These centers coordinate flight requests and ensure continuous communication before, during, and after every mission.


Our 24/7 Flight Dispatch can be reached through Charleston MedBase at (800) 346-4206, Huntington Medical Command at (800) 747-2244, and WVU Medical Command at (800) 255-2146.


Air medical transport is more than aviation and medicine—it is a commitment to providing hope, expertise, and rapid response when every second matters. HealthNet Aeromedical Services is proud to serve our communities with a mission focused on safety, clinical excellence, and compassionate care.