ELKINS — HealthTeam Critical Care Transport will be servicing hospital-to-hospital ambulance transports from Davis Medical Center beginning Friday morning, with ambulances arriving in Elkins on Thursday, officials confirmed.

HealthTeam, which is an operation of HealthNet Aeromedical Services, will begin transport services from Davis Medical Center at 7 a.m. on Friday, said Clinton Burley, the HealthNet Aeromedical Services CEO and president.

This comes after the Randolph County Ambulance Authority announced Monday afternoon that the Randolph County Emergency Squad will stop making hospital-to-hospital transports from Davis Medical Center beginning Friday morning.

A Randolph County Ambulance Authority press release announcing the change can be read in the Aug. 12 edition of The Inter-Mountain or at theintermountain.com.

“The residents of your community can be very confident that the quality and the expertise that they have grown accustomed to through the HealthNet Aeromedical flight program is replicated within our ground transport operation,” Burley told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday. “While it’s new to your market (area), this model of dedicated inter-hospital transport by ground is in no way new to West Virginia.”

HealthTeam will transport patients from Davis Medical Center to either the patient’s home, to outpatient nursing home care or to the appropriate hospitals or facilities within the healthcare systems of Vandalia Health, WVU Medicine and Marshall Health Network, he said.

HealthNet, and therefore HealthTeam, are both cooperatively owned and operated by Vandalia Health, WVU Medicine and Marshall Health Network, Burley noted.

“When this program started decades ago, there weren’t any such things as health systems,” Burley said. “There were three hospitals. There was WVU Hospital, Charleston Area Medical Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital, and they formed this program (HealthNet). However, through the years as the hospitals grew and became health systems, there wasn’t really any change for us. It’s not as if any of these three owners just joined our group months ago. This is a four-decade legacy of providing medical transport all across West Virginia.”

“We will be wholly dedicated to providing service to patients at Davis Medical Center who are leaving Davis Medical Center to be discharged home or to a nursing home or need to be moved to another facility for a higher level of care,” Burley said. “That is also important for your community because this will allow the folks at Randolph County EMS to focus on their core mission, which is 911 response within the county.”

HealthNet operates eight helicopter bases and seven ambulance bases state-wide. The not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization has been in operation for 39 years.

HealthTeam currently operates 42 ambulances and transports more than 25,000 patients by ground annually, Burley said.

“I think that that is very important in your market (area), given the fact that the ground ambulance operation is owned by the same entity that is operating your local community hospital,” he added. “So it becomes very synonymous that we’re providing the service there.”

HealthTeam vehicles will begin to arrive in Elkins on Thursday afternoon, Burley explained, with a base established at Davis Medical Center. In the “medium term,” Burley said HealthTeam will likely establish a more permanent base located near the hospital.

HealthNet is also looking into possibly constructing a purpose-built EMS station for HealthTeam crews “somewhere in that market (area),” he said.

Burley noted that HealthTeam will also be available to help Randolph County EMS as an additional paramedic unit during emergency situations, if asked to assist and able to do so, with no charge to the county for the service.

“I personally have worked alongside Director (Kurt) Gainer (of Randolph County EMS) and his team for decades,” Burley said. “They do a great job in that county, and frankly, in my travels across the state, I often reference Randolph County EMS as one of the state’s high performing EMS programs.”

Burley added that HealthNet works with the insurance networks that cover “more than 80% of the total population of West Virginia,” meaning that, “in most cases,” HealthTeam will accept whatever patients’ insurances will pay. Burley emphasized that no patient will be refused transport because of their financial situation.

“We will never do any financial screening before accepting a transport,” Burley said. “That is not in our model. As a not-for-profit, that is owned by these three large health systems, our model is to transport the patient that has the need for transport, regardless of their ability to pay.”