With its call volume outpacing its available staffing, the North Lyon County Fire Protection District Board of Directors last week approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for medical air transport for critical calls.
The Fire Board approved the MOU with the Rural Medevac Alliance, doing business as Battle Born Medevac for auto-launching air medical transport. Battle Born Medevac is an air ambulance based in Yerington and the helicopter is stationed at South Lyon Medical Center.
Under the terms outlined in the MOU, Battle Born Medevac will automatically launch their helicopter when North Lyon Fire is dispatched to critical priority one medical calls. Fire Chief Brian Bunn said the battalion chiefs can make the determination if the helicopter is needed and can cancel its response, if necessary.
“With their spool of time they can be here in about 13 minutes, which is quicker than our closest ambulance coming up to Silver Springs,” Bunn said.
With no emergency room within the city of Fernley, patients requiring transport are taken to hospitals either in Fallon or Reno/Sparks. In a staff report for the meeting, Bunn wrote that 12% of all patient transports are directed to Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, while the remaining 88% are transported to hospitals in the Reno/Sparks area. Those transports can average up to 2.5 hours from the time of service to the time the crew returns to service, which Bunn said even further limits the district’s ability to respond to new emergencies.
“Due to our staffing, even prior to me getting here, we’re not meeting the service demand of the community,” Bunn said. “We don’t have the resources to get everybody transported to the appropriate facility.”
In May, Battle Born Medevac announced a sponsorship in which SB Energy fully funded a membership for every resident of Lyon and Mineral counties for the next three years. The company said that means any medically necessary air transport is fully covered with zero out-of-pocket costs, through May 31, 2029. That agreement does not apply to any other medical transport service.
“I think it’s a great benefit to the community and our staffing levels.” Bunn said. “They’ve become a key player in the rural medicine in Northern Nevada.
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