Northwest MedStar, Inland Northwest Health Services' critical-care medical transport service, now will have at least one registered nurse on duty at its Spokane dispatch center during the peak time for transports, following a pilot program testing that scenario.

INHS spokeswoman Nicole Stewart says MedStar now has two full-time nurses available to work these day shifts, which are the busiest for medical transports, at its Felts Field dispatch center, with a third nurse currently in training. She says all three are experienced transport nurses who have had several years of flight experience in medical transports.

"They will help assess the situation, the patient's status, and decide which mode of transport and which team is the most appropriate," Stewart says.

She says the goal is to have a nurse at the dispatch center 24 hours a day by early next yer. She says MedStar began staffing the dispatch center with a nurse in November of 2009 in a pilot program, and only recently decided to continue with the staffing change permanently. The nurses will remain at the dispatch center while other nurses will continue to accompany MedStar patient flights.

Carolyn Prouty, MedStar's chief transport nurse and one of the nurses who will work in the dispatch center, has been a transport nurse for MedStar for six years. Prouty says her main responsibilities during a transport were to provide direct care to the patient during the transport.

Now, she says, her duties in the dispatch center will be to gather detailed information about the patient's medical situation to determine how quickly they need to be transported, as well as what kind of transport method to use. She says she also keeps in touch with the patient's physician during the transport, and that as a registered nurse, she has the legal authority to take orders from a doctor and relay them to the transport crew.

MedStar has three helicopters, three fixed-wing airplanes, and three ambulances stationed at its three bases across the Inland Northwest, in Spokane, Moses Lake, and the Tri-Cities. Two of the choppers, planes, and ambulances are based at MedStar's Felts Field base, Prouty says. MedStar transports patients from emergency scenes, such as a car accident, or between hospitals if a patient requires care that isn't available at the facility where they've initially arrived.

"The mode of transport is determined by the patient's need and where they are going," she says, adding that the helicopter can lift off in about five minutes and can travel up to 160 miles from the base, while a fixed-wing aircraft can travel long distances faster, but takes longer to get off the ground.

Prouty says if all of MedStar's modes of transport are in use, she can assist the dispatch center's specialists in prioritizing requests, based on each patient's condition and the urgency of the transports.

"We also assist the referring agencies with any questions about medications or recommendations about the patient's care on their end," she says.

Prouty says the Spokane dispatch center receives anywhere from 550 to 750 radio and phone calls each day from across the Northwest, and also provides dispatch services for Missoula, Mont.-based Life Flight. The center has about 12 full-time communication specialists who take calls and arrange transports.

"It's very busy in there. To be able to have an additional person to help take off the load is another benefit because it's very busy. We can also check back with customers and make sure that things went smoothly," she says.

MedStar provides more than 3,500 medical transports each year and staffs its base 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It employs about 36 nurses who specialize in medical transport, she says.