Post by Okwes on May 1, 2006 18:17:43 GMT -5
American Indian Reservations Get Air Ambulances
American Indian Reservations Get Air Ambulances
wcco.com/local/local_story_116180751.html
<http://wcco.com/local/local_story_116180751.html>
(AP) Sioux Falls, S.D. Isolated American Indians soon will be closer to
emergency health care through a plan to put air ambulances on
reservations nationwide.
The first airplanes will be located on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud
reservations in South Dakota by July, then Fort Berthold in North
Dakota.
The goal is to reduce the time it takes to get a patient to a hospital
that can provide a level of care not available in rural areas.
"If we can start saving hours ... we can start saving lives," Tex Hall,
chairman of the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, said Wednesday at the
announcement in Sioux Falls.
It now can take three or four hours for some patients to get to a
hospital because the air ambulance first has to fly from its hospital to
the reservation and then back to the hospital.
Hall's coalition of tribes is working with PassNet Inc. of Plymouth,
Minn., which secured investors and plans to put fixed-wing airplanes on
50 reservations over the next five years and cut that time, said its
CEO, John Warnock.
"We want to roll this out one station a month," he said.
Funding for the flights will come from the federal programs under which
the patients are covered: Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services and
the Veterans Administration, Warnock said.
Cecelia Fire Thunder, Oglala Sioux Tribe president, said the service
will allow patients to be taken immediately to a burn unit, for example,
instead of to local and regional hospitals first.
The airplanes also will be used to fly in specialists so people can be
cared for on the reservation, which will keep that money from going
elsewhere and better serve people, said Fire Thunder, whose tribal
members live on the huge Pine Ridge reservation in southwestern South
Dakota.
"We're going to be able to bring the experts in," she said.
Rep. Paul Valandra, D-Mission, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe,
mentioned the need to Warnock in December. The Rosebud and Pine Ridge
health committees and tribal councils have since approved it, and the
planes are scheduled to be moved in by summer.
"This group moves at warp speed," Warnock said.
Valandra said the state also will save Medicaid money because of the
ability to shop around for the best rates and specialties.
Warnock said fixed-wing airplanes will be used instead of helicopters
because they cost a third less to operate, are faster and can fly in
more inclement weather.
He said that in 2003, he dislodged a piece of food from his 4-year-old
son's throat, and the seven minutes it took paramedics to arrive seemed
like an eternity.
"I can't imagine what it's like to hold a child's hand for four hours,"
Warnock said.
Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in Fort Berthold, N.D., is
also former president of the National Congress of American Indians. The
Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, which he now runs, is a national
coalition of Indian tribes, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians.
American Indian Reservations Get Air Ambulances
wcco.com/local/local_story_116180751.html
<http://wcco.com/local/local_story_116180751.html>
(AP) Sioux Falls, S.D. Isolated American Indians soon will be closer to
emergency health care through a plan to put air ambulances on
reservations nationwide.
The first airplanes will be located on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud
reservations in South Dakota by July, then Fort Berthold in North
Dakota.
The goal is to reduce the time it takes to get a patient to a hospital
that can provide a level of care not available in rural areas.
"If we can start saving hours ... we can start saving lives," Tex Hall,
chairman of the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, said Wednesday at the
announcement in Sioux Falls.
It now can take three or four hours for some patients to get to a
hospital because the air ambulance first has to fly from its hospital to
the reservation and then back to the hospital.
Hall's coalition of tribes is working with PassNet Inc. of Plymouth,
Minn., which secured investors and plans to put fixed-wing airplanes on
50 reservations over the next five years and cut that time, said its
CEO, John Warnock.
"We want to roll this out one station a month," he said.
Funding for the flights will come from the federal programs under which
the patients are covered: Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services and
the Veterans Administration, Warnock said.
Cecelia Fire Thunder, Oglala Sioux Tribe president, said the service
will allow patients to be taken immediately to a burn unit, for example,
instead of to local and regional hospitals first.
The airplanes also will be used to fly in specialists so people can be
cared for on the reservation, which will keep that money from going
elsewhere and better serve people, said Fire Thunder, whose tribal
members live on the huge Pine Ridge reservation in southwestern South
Dakota.
"We're going to be able to bring the experts in," she said.
Rep. Paul Valandra, D-Mission, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe,
mentioned the need to Warnock in December. The Rosebud and Pine Ridge
health committees and tribal councils have since approved it, and the
planes are scheduled to be moved in by summer.
"This group moves at warp speed," Warnock said.
Valandra said the state also will save Medicaid money because of the
ability to shop around for the best rates and specialties.
Warnock said fixed-wing airplanes will be used instead of helicopters
because they cost a third less to operate, are faster and can fly in
more inclement weather.
He said that in 2003, he dislodged a piece of food from his 4-year-old
son's throat, and the seven minutes it took paramedics to arrive seemed
like an eternity.
"I can't imagine what it's like to hold a child's hand for four hours,"
Warnock said.
Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in Fort Berthold, N.D., is
also former president of the National Congress of American Indians. The
Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, which he now runs, is a national
coalition of Indian tribes, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians.