Share
Carolinas HealthCare System plans to buy three new helicopters to replace three aging ones in the system's MedCenter Air ambulance fleet.
On Tuesday, the system's board of commissioners approved the purchase of three new Eurocopter 135 helicopters at a total of $16 million.
The system plans to sell its three older Bell 430 helicopters for about $4.5 million each, for a net outlay of $3 million.
The new helicopters, expected to arrive separately during the next 18 months, will have “dramatically reduced operating costs” compared to the older ones, said Joe Piemont, president and chief operating officer of CHS. “It's time to replace them and get the new models and reduce our operating expenses.”
The older helicopters were used when they were purchased in 1996, 1998 and 2002 for $4 million to $5 million each, according to spokesman Scott White. In addition to the three Bell helicopters, the hospital system owns a fourth Bell helicopter that is used as a backup.
MedCenter Air also owns four airplanes, including two that are used only for transporting patients and one that is also used for procuring donor organs and for business trips. The fourth will be sold.
In 2008, Carolinas HealthCare's helicopters made more than 1,700 medical transports. The fixed-wing aircraft made 600 transportation runs.
After the meeting, Piemont told reporters that the hospital system does not have specific plans for what it will do with property it owns along East Boulevard in Dilworth.
In recent years, CHS, the parent of Carolinas Medical Center, and its real estate representatives have bought dozens of homes and some businesses along East Boulevard and adjacent streets.
“We're kind of standing pat … and monitoring very closely for maintenance. Some of those buildings need to be torn down.”
He said a “potential use” for the sites would be new buildings for the proposed branch of the UNC Chapel Hill medical school, which was approved by the UNC Board of Governors in March 2008. Those plans are on hold as the state wrestles with revenue shortfalls.
