By Joey Harris
The Bismarck Tribune
WILLISTON, N.D. — Air medical services are set to return to Williston nearly two years after the city lost its provider, thanks to a unique partnership between the city and a private company.
The sudden departure of Utah-based Guardian Flight in July 2023 left officials “shocked.” Guardian, at the time, said inflation and poor weather conditions were behind its decisions to leave.
It was a big loss for a growing region. Williston’s population has more than doubled since North Dakota’s oil boom began over 15 years ago.
Williston’s local hospital does not provide the same levels of care that others in larger cities do, so patients with serious injuries often need to be transported far from the northwest North Dakota city.
“We have a higher amount of trauma cases because of the workforce up here,” Williston Assistant Fire Chief Corey Johnson said.
It’s not just the Williston-area workers who need medical flights. Air medical services are often also needed for people who have heart attacks and strokes in the area, Johnson said.
No longer having Guardian’s services meant that first responders were more often relying on ground ambulances to pick people up at the scene of an injury, which in turn lengthened the amount of time it took to get people transported to other hospitals.
Johnson told the Tribune that city first responders have relied on air medical services from other regions to transport patients to far-away hospitals around 50 times a month since Guardian left. Though the flights always got there, they were sometimes coming from as far as Denver and Minneapolis to provide services, which meant the care locals received was not as good as it could have been.
“We were left with a huge void,” he said.
To fill that void, the city plans to partner with a private company to run its air medical services. The setup is different than more conventional approaches where one entity — often a private company or a nonprofit — runs the entire operation. Johnson said it is expected to lower costs for both sides.
Williston Care Flight will provide the flight pilots and mechanics who will work out of Williston-based Overland Aviation, which will provide the hangar, office space and fuel. Williston Care Flight’s vice president is also a co-owner of Overland Aviation, and the company has similar operations in Grand Forks and in Sydney, Montana.
For its part, the Williston Fire Department will staff the paramedics and nurses in new-hire positions that members of the department will eventually be able to train for and be promoted to.
Johnson said the city will spend around $800,000 to finance its role in the effort, which will be used to pay and train people for the positions.
Williston Air Flight and the city will split revenues to pay off their initial investments, and later, to keep the services going.
City officials are optimistic that this approach will provide a long-term solution to the region’s medical flight needs.
Flights are expected to begin at the end of May.
“It’s really going to affect Williston, but it’s going to affect the broader area too,” Johnson said.
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