Island Air Will Continue Medevac Services

Island Air’s Cessna 208 Caravan with (left to right) EMT Dan Bacon, flight nurse and director of clinical operations Trish Fenstermacher, and pilot and owner Jackie Hamilton. Gabe Conway – photo

Island Air will continue to make its medevac services available without charge to residents of the public hospital district through the end of 2016, giving us time to consider the purchase of a membership.

Beginning next January 1st the cost of a family membership will be $39 per year, or $119 for three years, the same as what residents of other islands have been paying. This program shields participants from the cost of medically necessary flights not covered by insurance.

The contractual arrangement with San Juan Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ended on April 1st and since that time Island Air owners Jackie and Will Hamilton have been researching ways of keeping the business financially sustainable without making medical evacuation a financial hardship for members of the community.

Their newest med-evac airplane, a Cessna 208 Caravan, operational since January of 2015, is an all-weather aircraft which improves their winter-time capability.

As in the past, every med-evac flight will have on board a flight nurse and an EMT or a paramedic.

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