Air-Ambulance Service Leaves O.C.

County fire departments are now rarely calling on helicopters to transport accident victims to local trauma centers because the county’s only helicopter-ambulance service has relocated from UCI Medical Center in Orange to San Bernardino County.

Mercy Air Service Inc., which is involved in an insurance dispute with the state, claims that it is no longer financially practical for the chopper to operate from a base inside the county. Their choppers moved to Rialto Airport, 12 minutes from the Orange County line, in late September.

“Basically, we’re not even calling for them now because we realize there is going to be a delay,” said Chuck Reynolds, a Huntington Beach Fire Department battalion chief.

Mercy Air owner Donald Reed, who said that the majority of his helicopters’ assignments are hospital transfers for patients covered by Medi-Cal, noted that the state Department of Health Services cut Medi-Cal insurance payments to California air-ambulances by 60% last July.

As a result, Reed said, the company has been refusing almost all requests to transport Medi-Cal patients. The loss in income forced Mercy Air to pull out of Orange County because it is more efficient for the company to service Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties from Rialto Airport, he said.

“This isn’t just an issue for our company,” Reed said. “This is a statewide issue. The state forced us to make some very drastic business decisions, and, unfortunately, Orange County was the bearer of the brunt.”

Reed said the company could return to Orange County in April if industry officials reach a compromise with the state regarding insurance reimbursements.

Fire officials in other cities said the only time their departments would call for a helicopter now would be if a trauma victim is trapped inside a vehicle and could not be extricated quickly anyway.

“Our goal is to get the patient into the trauma surgeon’s hands within 60 minutes of the time of injury,” said Vickie Cleary, head of the Newport Beach Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services.

Cleary said that, depending on the time of day, it could take a ground ambulance between 15 and 30 minutes to travel from Newport Beach to trauma centers at UCI Medical Center, Western Medical Center-Santa Ana or Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. A helicopter could cover the same distance in five minutes, she said.

Since Mercy Air Service pulled out of Orange County, there have been three calls for emergency helicopter service. Two involved trauma cases and the third involved an injured hiker, said Betty O’Rourke, head of the county’s Emergency Medical Services.