"The Golden Hour" — the critical response time immediately following a life-threatening injury — may be improved for Montezuma County if plans for a rescue helicopter at Southwest Memorial are realized.

The Southwest Health System board has given the green light for Classic Helicopters, Inc., to station one of their Bell 206L3 critical-care and rescue helicopters on campus for a six-month trial period. But the company, based out of Salt Lake City, has yet to commit to the plan pending more research into this region’s profit potential.

"We’re planning to have it here by March, but it depends on whether Classic feels there are enough patients to pay for it," said Dr. Michael Duehrssen, Southwest’s emergency-department director.

According to the arrangement, pursued by Duehrssen under the Southwest Lifeguard organization, Classic would fully maintain and finance staffing for the medically-equipped helicopter, hire a full-time pilot, and pay for a $1-million insurance policy, in exchange for a free parking space at Southwest Memorial.

The chopper would also be available for other county and private company needs such as fire-fighting, back-country rescue, law enforcement, and oil-and-gas-field surveys at a cost of $750 per hour. It has a range of 280 nautical miles, can fly up to 20,000 feet and can be retrofitted in 15 minutes to accommodate those alternate needs.

"I believe that we would not have had the fugitive situation if this type of service had been available," Duehrssen said of the various advantages Classic offers for communities.

Profits would be derived strictly from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement from patients, along with collected rental payments for non-medical uses of the craft.

"Emergency medical needs would always be a priority, though," assured Duehrssen. "So if it was being used for something other than that, and we had a bad accident, it would be pulled off the scene and respond to our needs immediately."

Certain ER staffers at Southwest Memorial would be trained and certified for air ambulance rescue and become Classic employees as soon as they boarded the craft during a medical rescue mission. SHS has agreed to pay approximately $37,000 per year in additional ER personnel needed to compensate staffing when Southwest employees switch to Classic’s payroll during a flight. SHS’s only other obligation would be to store the unit on its heli-pad and provide storage for equipment.