Mountain Air Medical CEO, founder and pilot Kim Harrower, Chief Flight Nurse Gretchen Schmid and Flight Medic Jim Smith will begin operating their fixed-wing air ambulance out of Jackson Hole Airport this month.
Mountain Air Medical CEO, founder and pilot Kim Harrower, Chief Flight Nurse Gretchen Schmid and Flight Medic Jim Smith will begin operating their fixed-wing air ambulance out of Jackson Hole Airport this month.
RYAN DORGAN / NEWS&GUIDE
Classic Air Medical CAO Wade Patton, Director of Operations Chris Burns, CEO Tony Henderson, and managers Colby Johnson and Keaton Henderson.
Two air ambulance outfits began working out of Jackson Hole Airport in 2020, adding direct competition to a market that has gone without a dedicated medevac aircraft for years.
Because of the absence, St. John’s Health doctors have had to call on one of six companies based elsewhere when a flight was needed to transport a sick or injured patient. But in 2020 Jackson Hole Airport’s board of directors approved two new operating agreements. In February the board signed off on Salt Lake City-based Classic Air Medical, and in November it authorized Jackson Hole-based Mountain Air Medical.
Well, sorta ... Jackson Hole Air Ambulance did not cease operations "for financial reasons" .. but rather because after 12 years and about 1,000 flights there were now several other Air Ambulance services, being subsidized by hospitals where they were based, and I didn't need to continue subsidizing JHAA ... Well, I guess that is a financial consideration. JHAA and all our pilots, flight nurses, flight EMT's and other staff are proud of what we accomplished. Best wishes to the two 'new' air ambulance operations.
Thanks for added context, Richard. Looking through the archives for stories on this topic was fascinating. I found an action-packed feature story about one of your medevac crews working a night shift and even an old JH News editorial thanking JHAA for its years of service in the valley.
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Well, sorta ... Jackson Hole Air Ambulance did not cease operations "for financial reasons" .. but rather because after 12 years and about 1,000 flights there were now several other Air Ambulance services, being subsidized by hospitals where they were based, and I didn't need to continue subsidizing JHAA ... Well, I guess that is a financial consideration. JHAA and all our pilots, flight nurses, flight EMT's and other staff are proud of what we accomplished. Best wishes to the two 'new' air ambulance operations.
Thanks for added context, Richard. Looking through the archives for stories on this topic was fascinating. I found an action-packed feature story about one of your medevac crews working a night shift and even an old JH News editorial thanking JHAA for its years of service in the valley.
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