Mercy Flight shares importance of their mission ahead of annual bash

BATAVIA, N.Y. (WIVB — The fifth annual “BASH for Mercy Flight” will take off on Sept. 20 to support the nonprofit’s mission that they conduct every day.

For more than 40 years, Mercy Flight has been helping save lives with air transport to local hospitals, and in 2009, they expanded their service to include emergency ground service.

Their emergency ground serves several counties including Genesee, Orleans, Southern Erie, and Niagara as well as the town of Hamlin in Monroe County.

“Every minute matters, every second plays a role. We closely monitor how quickly our crews are leaving the base, getting on the track and responding out to their agent, out to their call, being safe and monitoring their safety as well, getting to the patient safely,” said Janel Koeth, assistant operations manager at Genesee & Erie County Operations for Mercy Flight. “Right away, they’re up and walking to the truck, we got to be out the door within 60 seconds and they know that. And then there are certain time requirements that we have to meet for the different geographic regions of the county.”

Mercy Flight’s ground’s service has had more than 15,000 patient encounters every year, and 200 of their employees work in ground service.

“The ambulances really play a big role because we might be the only ones that are available and coming to you in time of emergency,” said Koeth. “We heavily rely on our volunteer agencies and partnerships throughout the counties that we work in, and we wouldn’t be able to be successful without their help as well, working in their own communities and serving each other.”

Mercy Flight tells us that they were one of the first emergency response crews to arrive at the scene of the Pembroke bus crash in late August that killed five people and left dozens of others injured.

“They were on scene within minutes, providing patient care to the patients inside and out of the bus,” said Koeth.

Scott Wooton, the executive vice president of Mercy Flight, tells us the nonprofit helped transport more than 20 patients from the bus crash, four by helicopter and 18 by ambulance.

“Nobody had any idea that that was gonna happen, but at the same time, obviously you prepare for it and you plan for it,” said Wooton. “I just couldn’t be more proud of what we were able to do, what our employees did that day. It was really something special to see, when you have just such a terrible tragedy, to see that response and that coordinated effort and the efforts of everybody on scene, you know, pulling in the same direction and again, saving lives and improving outcomes.”

For more information about Mercy Flight and their mission, visit their website here.