Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines will expand its air ambulance fleet to two helicopters beginning in November to meet an increasing demand for service, the hospital system announced this morning.

Currently, the Mercy One helicopter, a Bell 429, serves a 75-mile radius around Des Moines and is stationed at Mercy’s main campus. Mercy will lease a second helicopter, a Bell 407, which will be stationed at the Knoxville airport to better serve areas south and east of Des Moines. Communities that will benefit from the second helicopter include Knoxville, Pella, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Albia, Centerville, Chariton, Corydon and Bloomfield.

“We’ve been exploring the possibility of an expansion for a while,” said Dan Keough, director of emergency transport services at Mercy, in a press release. “We have seen a large increase in the number of requests for air ambulance transport. By expanding our fleet, we will respond even faster to rural areas in southeast Iowa.”

Dispatchers located at Mercy’s central campus will choose the aircraft that best fits the patient’s care needs, Keough said.

Mercy began using the new Bell 429, which replaced an older model it had been using, last fall, at the same time that Iowa Health – Des Moines upgraded to a newer model. The second helicopter is approximately 18 months old and is also equipped with state-of-the-art navigational equipment.

With the addition of the Mercy’s second helicopter, up to 12 new employees will be hired. Mercy will fill seven positions for medical flight personnel, and Air Methods Corp., the company that leases the helicopter to Mercy, will hire four pilots and a mechanic. The additional staff will rotate between the Mercy One bases in Des Moines and Knoxville.

In 2009, Mercy One received 1,320 requests for transport; of those, 433 came from the southeast Iowa corridor. Mercy One made 714 flights in 2009, with 264 of those to southeast Iowa.

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