Erlanger’s flight path
* 1988 – Erlanger launches Life Force* 1995 – Sparta, Tenn., base added* 2006 – Calhoun, Ga., base added* 2010 – Blue Ridge, Ga., base added* 2015 – Winchester, Tenn., base added* 2008 – Erlanger transferred helicopter aviation equipment and staff to Med-Trans Corp.
Chattanooga’s biggest hospital will soon extend its market into western North Carolina by stationing a helicopter in Cherokee County and perhaps taking over the Murphy Medical Center.
Erlanger Health System announced Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent to either purchase, lease or manage the 25-bed Murphy Medical Center hospital in western North Carolina and will soon station the sixth Erlanger Life Force helicopter at the Western Carolina Regional Airport in Andrews, N.C.
For Erlanger, the moves should help bring critical care patients to Erlanger’s main hospital from a wider area as part of the hospital’s growth toward becoming the region’s first billion-dollar-a-year health care system by fiscal 2018.
For the only hospital in Cherokee County, N.C., the sale or alliance with Erlanger should help it to attract more surgeons and physicians, provide a better continuum of care for those coming to Murphy Medical and help ensure the future of the 38-year-old hospital.