NANTUCKET – Boston MedFlight has resumed patient transfer operations at Nantucket Cottage Hospital after a week of practice runs.
Boston MedFlight is now using the helipad associated with the new hospital.
For almost three years, MedFlight had been conducting all transfers from Nantucket Memorial Airport after the previous helipad at Nantucket Cottage Hospital was decommissioned and the construction of the new hospital got underway.
The new helipad looks to be one of Boston MedFlight’s most convenient and accessible community hospital helipads.
“It’s much larger and much safer than it was in the past,” said Public Information Officer for Nantucket Cottage Hospital, Jason Graziadei.
“The previous version was basically in the middle of a parking lot which presented a lot of challenges for our staff and to do these kind of transfers safely.”
The new helipad features high tech, pilot-controlled edge lighting, a lighted beacon, electric traffic gates to restrict access to the pad, a sidewalk directly into the Emergency Department, and video monitoring that will be visible from MedFlight’s Communication Center.
“There’s a whole host of safety enhancements, its closer to the emergency department then it used to be, that’s how much safety and redundancy has been built into the new set up,” continued Graziadei.
Due to these safety enhancements and close proximity to the Emergency Department, crews from the Nantucket Fire Department will no longer need to be called to stand by for landings and takeoffs at Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
Of the 10,000-plus patients Nantucket Cottage Hospital cares for in its Emergency Department every year, only two to three percent require transfer by Boston MedFlight or the Coast Guard.
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