The Gundersen AIR helicopter based in Decorah now will be contacted sooner to handle many calls from Fayette County

PHOTO ID: (Front row, from left): Fayette County Sheriff's Office 911 Dispatchers Becky Everitt, Kelly Fink, Samantha Rumph and Autumn Pope. (Back row, from left): Flight Paramedic John Krause, Flight Nurse Erin Cantrell, Flight Paramedic Ben Shockey and Pilot Kevin Flynt.

A new program called "Auto Launch" is now in operation in Fayette County.  Whenever the Fayette County Sheriff's Office receives a call which meets certain criteria, Auto Launch will dispatch the Gundersen AIR helicopter at the time of the initial 911 call.

The program is aimed at providing the earliest transport and necessary treatment to these patients from the scene of a traumatic or medically time-sensitive incident.

Gundersen AIR approached the Fayette Sheriff's Office with the proposal.  Gundersen AIR's helicopter base in Decorah averages a flight time of 10 to 15 minutes from Decorah to Fayette County.

The initial call is placed to Gundersen Dispatch by Fayette County Dispatch. The closest available aircraft will be dispatched to the response area with Gundersen assuming the role of contacting additional transport resources allowing Fayette County Dispatch to give their attention to other important tasks related to the emergency call. If the Gundersen AIR aircraft are not the closest, are busy on other calls, or decline due to weather; Gundersen will call other air medical services.

Auto Launch does not change how decisions are made by the ground ambulance service.  If the ground ambulance arrives and determines the helicopter is not necessary, the helicopter is simply sent back to its hangar.  But Auto Launch gives the helicopter service a head start in completing their preflight checklist which on average takes 12-14 minutes to complete. This gets the helicopter in the air faster, and therefore gets the patient to a hospital sooner.