On March 8, 2023, Ascension St. Mary’s and Covenant HealthCare began a partnership for emergency air medical transportation services provided by FlightCare.
Covenant entered a preferred provider agreement with Ascension St. Mary’s FlightCare, which is operated by Med-Trans, a member of the Global Medical Response family.
“It’s the patients who truly benefit from this healthcare partnership,” said Beth Charlton, president and CEO of Covenant HealthCare. “Air transportation is a key component in responding to emergency medical situations. Our mission is to ensure services are available to patients who need them. Initiating this local collaboration made sense as we continue to fulfill our mission.”
FlightCare was established in 1987 and is located at Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital in Saginaw. FlightCare transports patients throughout Michigan’s lower peninsula and is dedicated to providing quality patient care to critically ill or injured individuals from accident scenes and interhospital transport. The team consists of pilots, flight nurses, flight paramedics, mechanics and more. For infants with critical needs, the Covenant Transport Team lends its expertise to support safe transfers to the Covenant Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (RNICU). The Covenant RNICU is a 55-bed unit, certified to provide the highest level of care for babies in mid to northern Michigan.
“FlightCare has flown thousands of patients over the course of their years of dedicated service, led by a highly-skilled medical team, some who have been with the program since inception,” said Stephanie Duggan, MD, FACEP, FAAPL, CPE, regional president and CEO, Mid/North Region, Ascension Michigan. “Highly trained and experienced in critical care and advanced lifesaving skills, the FlightCare team is committed to providing each patient with the care they need, when they need it.”
Ascension St. Mary’s and Covenant have a history of partnering for local emergency medical services. In 1994, the two organizations established Mobile Medical Response (MMR) in an effort to provide a high-performance emergency medical service system in Saginaw County.
