Williston Care Flight Returns Air Ambulance Services to Area

Thanks to a local cooperation, the first responders of the City of Williston are no more limited by the heavens.

Williston has been without locally stationed air medical transportation services for the past 18 months following the most recent provider's July 2023 discontinuation of operations in July. Several private and governmental entities came together to form the partnership, which includes the City of Williston, CHI St. Alexius Health Williston, and Williston Care Flight to ensure that Williston's air medical transportation services will return in the next months.

"We have a unique model for this operation in that we are working with the community, the hospital, and the county to bring these air medical services back to Williston." Said Williston Care Flight Vice President Kyle Black.

Black is eager to provide these essential services back to Williston, already running Care Flight operations from Grand Forks, ND, and Sidney, MT.

With help from the Williston Fire Department, Black is also co-owner and Vice President of Overland Aviation, from which Williston Care Flight will fly. Williston Care Flight will be supplying both pilots and mechanics to work with three paramedics and three nurses. Overland Aviation will supply the hangar, office space, and fuel for the operation.

Black said, "Historically, when we have started activities in a community, our medical staff has been direct workers of the local hospital itself." Working with (Williston Fire Department) Chief Clark, who already employs paramedics, it made the most operational sense to have our flight paramedics and flight nurses working directly for the fire department, which is already providing local emergency medical services to the community."

Chief Matt Clark notes that the long-term goal is to have those become promotable jobs that members of the department may seek, train, and apply for. The WFD personnel will be new-hire roles.

Black mentioned that he expects operations for Williston Care Flight to start May 31, offering emergency flights to bigger regional healthcare facilities for individuals needing specialist treatment.

"An amazing team effort has taken place over the last 18 months to find a solution for ensuring that air medical transportation operations will be available for the community.," Black stated. "The Williston Care Flight solution isn't something that came together in a week; this has been an evolving idea since July of 2023, when the former provider announced that they were removing their helicopter from Williston."

Black then said the reality of the local community losing its air medical transportation service started to settle in and set the idea in motion.

"It was at this point that we started the process of determining who was going to restore the services to the community," Black stated. "And finally, if no one was going to come into this community and offer services, how could we create a business model that would provide for the long-term sustainability of operations for at least the next ten years?"

Over the past 15 years, Williston has seen the emergence and departure of four different air ambulance companies, according to Jacob Keller, President of Williston Care Flight. "The historical structure involved with these previous organizations clearly identified that the conventional approach to providing these services wasn't working and finally resulted in the community losing their locally stationed air medical transportation option."

Keller clarified that this important element underlined the need for cooperation among the city, the hospital, and their staff that results in the special method Keller and Black are using to bring back these air medical transportation services to the community.

"The Williston Care Flight program will be a part of this community for years to come, and community members should take comfort in knowing that the historical events related to the overnight loss of air medical transportation services are a thing of the past." Keller noted.

Black and Keller also thank City of Williston leadership and CHI St. Alexius President Garrick Hyde for their help in enabling the Williston Care Flight business to take off. To help with staffing expenses, Williston Care Flight also got money from the Williston Economic Development STAR Fund.

Black remarked, "A really big kudos is due to the Williston City Commission, the Fire Department, and the Hospital leadership team." "This really has been a team effort for the benefit of the local area and surroundings."

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"I am most appreciative of our leadership team for bringing this about," Chief Clark stated. "We now have here to stay a fixed-wing asset and EMS career path.“