Air medical care firm sets up
Oct. 31, 2003

SHAWN ANDERSON
Observer-Dispatch

ROME -- At a quick glance, Life Net's new offices could pass for hotel rooms.

There are two waterbeds in one room. A night table with a clock radio. For entertainment, a television and VCR.

But Life Net's helicopter outside, and the weather-mapping tools inside, deflates any idea it's running a hotel.

Life Net of New York, a for-profit company that transports people needing immediate medical care to hospitals and provides critical-care service en route, began operating Thursday morning at the fire station in Griffiss Business and Technology Park.

The company expects to fill a void locally, program director Tina Giangrasso said.

"It was an unserved area for air medical care," she said.

Life Net, a 24-hour service, is used after emergency medical personnel respond to, say, a car accident or heart attack victim. If those first responders determine that a victim needs immediate medical care, Life Net can bring them to a hospital while providing care along the way, Giangrasso said. Victims' insurance usually covers as much as 90 percent of the costs, she said.

"We don't contract with (hospitals and ambulances), but we educate them about our abilities," Giangrasso said.

Before Life Net opened, patients in the Mohawk Valley needing helicopter medical transportation were often serviced by the Albany branch of Life Net or Mercy Flight Central out of Marcellus in Onondaga County, Giangrasso said.

Gary Morgan, program director for the non-profit Mercy Flight Central, said he expected competition from Life Net, but was unsure of the effect it would have on his organization.

Morgan also said Mercy Flight Central had considered opening a base in the Utica/Rome region, but decided against it.

"We found there just wasn't enough volume to support it," he said.

How do waterbeds help save lives? They're for pilots, who work 12-hour shifts, and nurses, who can work up to 24-hour shifts, to take naps.