MedFlight stations chopper at Lawrence Airport

Dec. 01--NORTH ANDOVER -- A trip to a Boston hospital just got a few minutes faster now that Boston MedFlight has stationed one of its helicopters at the Lawrence Municipal Airport.

The company recently decided to move a helicopter and a critical care ambulance to the airport, located off Route 125 in North Andover, to improve service to the Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire.

"With our new base at Lawrence Municipal Airport, we are able to provide a faster response time and better serve critically ill and injured patients in the surrounding communities," said company CEO Suzanne Wedel, M.D.

The helicopter and ambulance were shifted to North Andover from the company's headquarters at Hanscom Field in Bedford on Nov. 21. A staff of six full-time employees will be located at the airport, including a pilot, nurse, paramedic, and EMT for the ambulance, a mechanic to work on the aircraft and a base manager, according to Andy Farkas, chief of operations for MedFlight.

He said the move to the airport was based on "its geographic location for the quickest response time to Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire."

He said the airport had "all the resources we needed for aviation, including fuel, a hangar facility, instrumentation for weather, and approaches into the airport."

While it took up to 15 minutes to get to an area location from the Bedford station, it will take just three or four minutes to reach a local accident or local hospital for transporting patients to Boston.

In addition, the company brings a critical-care ground vehicle for people in critical condition who need specialized medical attention they can't receive in standard ambulances. That vehicle will be used mostly in poor weather.

Boston MedFlight serves 3,000 patients annually throughout Eastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Maine, Cape Cod and the Islands.

Boston MedFlight will continue to operate out of its existing headquarters at Hanscom and its base in Plymouth.

The company is financially supported in part by a consortium of Boston hospitals including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center. Since 1985, Boston MedFlight has played an integral role as part of the Massachusetts EMS system and the community hospitals of New England.

Copyright 2011 - The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.