History

In March 1993, West Michigan Air Care (Air Care) became the first hospital based consortium air medical program in the United States. A cooperative program sponsored by Ascension Borgess Hospital and Bronson Methodist Hospital. Air Care has been performing life saving missions to regional facilities and emergency agencies within a 75-mile primary and 100-mile secondary radius since its inception in March 1993.

As of September 1, 2016, Air Care began a new partnership with Metro Aviation, a national company that provides aviation services for more than 30 air ambulance programs in 18 states across the country.  Metro Aviation provides Air Care with an Airbus EC-145 helicopter as well as the pilots and maintenance technicians.  While Metro Aviation holds responsibility for the aircraft, all flights continue to be staffed by Air Care's experienced team of critical care registered nurses who are also licensed paramedics.

From its base in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Air Care's fully equipped helicopter is airborne and on its way within minutes of a request for service, delivering its critical care medical crew to a community hospital or scene rapidly. Our safe, quick, efficient service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for:

  • Interhospital transfers of the critically ill/injured patients.
  • Transport of trauma patients from the scene of an accident, incident or disaster.
  • Transport of trained specialty teams when requested.

Air Care is a premier full service critical care transport system. As a cooperative program of Ascension Borgess Hospital and Bronson Methodist Hospital, Air Care can afford the region an excellent combination of tertiary care expertise by offering a national model for transport of critically ill/injured patients. Air Care's patients are transported to receiving facilities offering a wide range of specialty care including but not limited to: Level I Trauma Centers; Cardiology; Neurology; Burn; High-risk Obstetrics and Pediatric.

Air Care continues its relentless pursuit of safety and excellence. This excellence is evidenced in part, by the achievement of accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services (CAMTS) in 1995. Air Care continues to obtain recertification every three years through strict adherence to CAMTS standards; as well as on-site survey credentialing. Air Care was one of the first 25 of 240 programs in the nation to obtain a CAMTS certification, and holds the honor of the first merged program to achieve certification. CAMTS accreditation represents the "Gold Standard" in air medical transport. As a voluntary accreditation, CAMTS demonstrates Air Care's commitment to providing patients with the highest quality air medical care.