New Partnership Expands Flight for Life Service

LONGVIEW – In a joint announcement, Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics, Good Shepherd Medical Center, and Champion EMS will be expanding Flight For Life medical air transportation service, beginning Tuesday, July 1. Trinity Mother Frances’ new, instrument-rated EC-145 helicopter will be stationed at the East Texas Regional Airport in Gregg County. Primarily serving Gregg and Harrison counties, this third aircraft in the Flight For Life squadron may be deployed to transport critically ill and injured patients in an area spanning from North Houston to Southern Oklahoma, and from near Waco into Arkansas and Louisiana. All told, the coverage area for Flight For Life will expand to roughly 100,000 square miles, according to officials.

The Flight For Life program was originally developed by Mother Frances Hospital in December 1985. Flight For Life provides access in a critical care environment of critically ill and injured patients from isolated rural medical facilities and EMS agencies to more tertiary care centers such as Good Shepherd Medical Center and Mother Frances Hospital.

“This is an amazing addition to healthcare in Longview and throughout East Texas,” said Ray Thompson, FACHE, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Trinity Mother France Hospitals and Clinics. “Both Good Shepherd Medical Center and Trinity Mother Frances take great pride in the high level of quality care we provide our patients in Gregg and Harrison Counties, and with this new helicopter service, we now also serve the nation,” said Ron Short, Chief Administrative Officer, Good Shepherd Medical Center.