The service has been based at the Marianna Airport for several years. The crews are housed in dorm facilities located inside the old air terminal building. They are thus located only a few steps away from their aircraft, which are parked on a special ramp pad outside the facility. Air Heart staff have stated that the facilities in Marianna are among the nicest at any of their base locations.
Their services are utilized by Jackson County Fire and Rescue in instances of severe injuries and extreme emergencies where immediate care from a regional hospital is needed. Hospitals located in Dothan and Tallahassee are the most common delivery points for local needs. In some cases, the fifteen or twenty minutes saved by flying the patients can be the difference between life and death.
The air ambulance operators are currently evaluating an alternate location in Chipley. It is our unconfirmed understanding that the helicopters would be based on a pad near the Chipley hospital. We are not able to get information relating to how far away the crews accommodations would be from their flight equipment. It is our understanding that this possible change has been initiated due to a restructuring of their service deliveries in counties located west of Jackson County, and the fact that they will be utilizing one less helicopter in the panhandle and they want to have a configuration which best utilizes the remaining equipment for maximum service to the area.
Air Heart also is based at the DeFuniak Springs airport, and that service may also be relocated if the restructuring takes place. If they do relocate from Marianna to Chipley, the option of utilizing air transport will become a less beneficial option for emergencies which occur in Marianna, Grand Ridge, Sneads, and similar sites in the eastern half of Jackson County. Dispatching from Chipley would add approximately 25 to 30 minutes to their reaction time in those locations. This added reaction time would mean that air transfer would then hold no advantage over the decision to "load and go" using ambulances at the scene. If this relocation becomes a reality, it means that Air Heart would be leaving around 60% of our county's population (30,000 people) without practical air ambulance services. For those residents in the western part of the county, the reaction time from Chipley would be about the same as it currently is from Marianna. Since the population of Washington County is only around 23,000 residents, the move would not be increasing the system's overall level of service.
Additionally, it appears that there would be no refueling or maintenance capabilities at the Chipley location. This would thus require frequent ferrying of equipment to meet those needs. Reportedly the decision is currently under evaluation, and a final determination will be made on November 14, with announcement on the 21st. Let us all hope that they remain at the Marianna airport.
