Following an 18-month period with no air medical service in Williston, North Dakota, medical aircraft will be returning to the skies thanks to a collaboration between the City of Williston, CHI St. Alexius Health Williston and Williston Care Flight. The region's most recent provider discontinued operations in July of 2023.

“We have a unique model for this operation in that we are collaborating with the community, the hospital and the county to bring these air medical services back to Williston,” says Williston Care Flight vice president Kyle Black.

Already operating Care Flight services from Grand Forks, North Dakota and Sidney, Montana, Black is excited to return these vital services back to Williston.

Williston Care Flight will operate out of Williston Basin International airport FBO Overland Aviation, of which Black is also co-owner and vice president, with assistance from the Williston Fire Department. Overland Aviation will provide the hangar, office space and fuel for the operation with Williston Care Flight providing the pilots and mechanics to work alongside three paramedics and three nurses, staffed by the Williston Fire Department.

"Historically when we have initiated operations in a community, our medical staff have been direct employees of the local hospital itself,” Black explains. "In this operation, 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 that is already providing local emergency medical services to the community.”

The WFD staff will be new-hire positions, with chief Matt Clark adding that the long-term intent is to have those become promotable positions that members from the department can seek, train and apply for.

Black said that he anticipates operations for Williston Care Flight to begin 31 May, providing emergency flights to larger regional healthcare centres for patients who require specialised treatment.

"An incredible 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 goes on. “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 previous provider announced that they were removing their helicopter from Williston.”

After that announcement, Black says, the reality of the local community losing its air medical transportation service began to sink in and set the project in motion.

“It was at this point that we started the process of identifying who was going to restore the services to the community. And ultimately if nobody was going to come into this community and provide services how could we create a business model that would provide for the long-term sustainability of operations for at least the next 10 years?”

“Over the course of the last 15 years, there have been four different air ambulance companies that have come and gone in Williston,” reveals Jacob Keller, Williston Care Flight president. "The historical structure involved with these previous organisations clearly identified that the conventional approach to providing these services wasn't working and ultimately resulted in the community losing its locally stationed air medical transportation option.”

Keller explained that this critical factor highlighted the necessity for the collaboration that has occurred between the city, the hospital and their team, leading to the unique approach Keller and Black are taking to restore these air medical transportation services to the community.

“The Williston Care Flight programme 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 overnight loss of air medical transportation services are a thing of the past," Keller continues.

Black and Keller both credit support from City of Williston leadership and CHI St. Alexius president Garrick Hyde for their roles in making the Williston Care Flight operation a reality. Williston Care Flight also received support from the Williston Economic Development STAR Fund to assist with staffing costs.

“A really big kudos is due to the Williston City Commission, the Fire Department and the hospital leadership team,” Black confirms. “This truly has been a collaborative effort for the betterment of the community and the surrounding region."

“I am beyond grateful to our leadership team for making this happen,” chief Clark says. “We now have a fixed-wing asset and EMS career progression pathway that is here to stay.”