Starkville's George M. Bryan Airport welcomed a helicopter service to the area during a grand opening ceremony on Wednesday.
The new base in Starkville is North Mississippi Medical Center-CareFlight service's third base in north Mississippi, with others located in Tupelo and Winona.
The recent addition expands the coverage area to include Oktibbeha, Lowndes, Noxubee and Montgomery counties, according to NMMC-CareFlight Administrative Director Dennis Hebner.
"We are brining this approach to the community to save lives," Hebner said. "We are very pleased to be here. We are excited to have a team to provide a collaborative service to northeast Mississippi."
The move will expand CareFlight's service area to include all five NMMC community hospitals, while also providing transport services to speciality facilities in Jackson, Memphis and Nashville, he added.
"We feel this covers the NMMC footprint," Hebner said.
CareFlight has operated in Mississippi for 30 years. The service recently moved to a central scheduling system to better coordinate and utilize available aircraft through partnering with Air Methods, NMMC President David Wilson said.
Air Methods is the largest air medical dispatcher and provider in the country. All coordinating efforts are based out of Omaha, Nebraska, Hebner said.
"We are very excited and appreciative of this very important community endeavor," Wilson said.
George M. Bryan Airport Manager Rodney Lincoln helped coordinate the move after being approached by NMMC in February. After touring the facility, officials drafted a lease agreement that was approved by the airport board and subsequently approved by the Starkville Board of Aldermen in March.
"It's a great resource to have for anyone with emergency medical needs," Lincoln said. "We are very fortunate to have this in our city and at our airport."
In May, CareFlight has already made 19 transport flights, EMS officials said. The most common cases seen by paramedics include trauma incidents, strokes and heart attacks, according to NMMC-CareFlight Medical Director Joe Johnson.
Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn commended the effort put in by the airport board and Lincoln.
"Our city is fortunate to have this service that is provided by Air Methods and CareFlight," Wynn said. "This is an asset to our city."
The air medical service can provide different aspects of medical care ground EMS units can't, he added.
"As the population ages, patients develop more and more complex medical needs," Johnson said. "More and more we are seeing patients who would have died in the field or in-route be resuscitated and helped them have a positive outcome. That's all because we are able to get critical care to the patient more quickly."
The new base opening in Starkville fills a service void, he added.
"This has been an underserved area for some time," Johnson said. "We want to get patients transported as quickly as possible."