WHEELING - Air EVAC is leaving the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport because there are too many medical helicopter companies in the local market, a company spokesman said.
"The Wheeling area isn't big enough, and there's not a population to support all there are," said Danny Marcum, project director for Air EVAC.
"It's not because of competition or bad feelings. It's simply because of the other aircraft that are serving the community. It's not really about the number of calls. ... There's just not enough for the number of aircraft serving the area."
Air EVAC has had a base at the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport since June 2008.
The company, which operates 88 bases in 14 states, now is seeking to move to Wetzel County. Officials are in the final stages of setting an agreement with the Wetzel County Commission and Wetzel County Hospital, according to Marcum.
Medical helicopters most often seen locally are STAT Medevac aircraft from Pittsburgh and Health Met in Morgantown.
Health Met and Air EVAC are the only medical helicopter companies licensed to pick up and transport patients in West Virginia, according to Marcum. STAT Medevac, which has a base in Steubenville, can respond when called for mutual aid, he said.
In addition to its Wheeling location, Air EVAC has bases in East Liverpool, Parkersburg and Logan County, W.Va.
Thomas Tominack, manager of the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport, informed county commissioners this week of Air Evac's pending departure in November, and he attributed this to a lack of calls the company has received.
He suggested that local hospitals were calling units outside the area with whom they had established relationships, and he also made reference to a stabbing incident in West Liberty in which Air EVAC wasn't called.
Robert Fowler, assistant chief of the the West Liberty Volunteer Fire Department, said the Air EVAC medical helicopter team at the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport did little outreach to local emergency squads. He said this may be why the company has been receiving few calls in the area.
"The helicopter that came that night wasn't 70 miles away in Pittsburgh," Fowler said. "It was Stat MedEvac in Steubenville.
"The reason that helicopter was called is that Air EVAC had no outreach and did not come out to the local fire departments," he continued. "That night, there had been nothing set up to use them."
Fowler said the West Liberty VFD has medical helicopters land at the Windsor Coal Co. for transport, and that Air EVAC would not have had the coordinates to do that because that information had never been provided to the firm.
But Marcum noted that all medical helicopters in West Virginia are dispatched from one central location Medcom, a state-run service in Morgantown. Medcom provides all necessary information to the responding helicopter.
He added that in December, Air EVAC sent all local emergency squads a letter telling them about AirEVAC's operations and offering to do educational outreach.
Hospitals, meanwhile, have the option of what medical helicopter company they wish to have called.
And Maggie Espina, spokeswoman for East Ohio Regional Hospital and the Ohio Valley Medical Center, acknowledged that those hospitals are more apt to call companies with which they have "an established relationship."
She said it typically takes a medical helicopter 10-12 minutes from the time it is dispatched to fly to a local emergency, and that it generally takes that amount of time to stabilize and treat the patient prior to transport.
"We have been working with these companies for years and are satisfied with the services they have provided and the timeliness in which they respond," Espina said. "We didn't see a reason to change for the sake of changing."