Erlanger hospital’s board of trustees on Thursday night approved a $12.1 million sale of the hospital’s three helicopters and the transfer of 16 pilots and mechanics to Texas-based Med-Trans Corp.
The deal becomes effective immediately. Life Force will continue to use hospital medical staff — flight nurses and paramedics — but Med-Trans will take control of the hospital’s aging fleet of helicopters and all the components that go with those machines, said Roger Forgey, Erlanger vice president of regional operations and business development.
The merger is supported by the pilots, said Steve Stroughen, Life Force’s director.
Fred Buttrell, president and chief executive officer of Med-Trans, said the company immediately would replace the oldest and slowest of Life Force’s helicopters, and he said the cost of medical care would remain roughly the same.
Dallas-based Med-Trans has similar contracts with 24 agencies across the nation, including other hospitals in East Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia, according to a hospital statement.
For complete details, see Friday’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
