The Greene County Emergency Communications District's (911) board of directors heard a report Tuesday on the situation involving the two medical evacuation helicopter services that now have helicopters based here.

Wings Air Rescue, which is affiliated with Mountain States Health Alliance, has a helicopter based at Laughlin Memorial Hospital, while Wellmont Health System has a helicopter based at Takoma Regional Hospital.

Greene County 911 Director Jerry Bird told the 911 board on Tuesday that he had been asked during the board's last meeting to write a letter to Greene County-Greeneville EMS Board Chairman Rebekah English asking for clarification of the helicopter issue to prevent 911 dispatchers from being caught "in the middle" between competing helicopter services.

Bird then asked Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Director Robert Sayne, who also is a member of the 911 Board, to elaborate on the medical helicopter issue.

"As of right now, Wings Air Rescue is our first-call helicopter service," Sayne told the 911 Board.

Sayne explained to the Board that, under a five-year agreement between Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Wings Air Rescue, the Wings II helicopter based at Laughlin Memorial Hospital is to be the first helicopter dispatched by 911 to emergency scenes in Greene County.

If the Wings II helicopter is out of the county at the time a need for a medical evacuation helicopter arises, Sayne said, the WellmontOne helicopter based at Takoma Regional Hospital is to be dispatched.

Also, he said, in the case of emergency situations in which the more than one patient needs to be flown at one time, the WellmontOne helicopter, which is capable of carrying two patients, may be requested as well.

The EMS director told the 911 board on Tuesday that, for the last five years, he had been trying to convince Wings Air Rescue to base a medical evacuation helicopter here. Wings has served Greene County for the past 13 years.

Before Wings Air Rescue officials agreed last year to actually base a helicopter here, Sayne said, the Wings helicopters that served Greene County were based at the Johnson City Medical Center and in Morristown.

In April 2007, Sayne said, he entered into negotiations with Wings Air Rescue officials toward an agreement to actually base a Wings helicopter here.

"Before they (Wings officials) would commit to bring a helicopter to Greene County, they wanted a first-call agreement," Sayne said.

"Myself and the Wings director had several meetings. What I wanted out of it (the agreement) was training. We wanted certain classes that we normally can't get unless we pay large amounts of money.

"So in our agreement for them being on first-call, they agreed to provide us with particular classes that we weren't able to get unless we went out of the county for them," Sayne said.

He told the 911 board that plans originally were to put the first-call agreement with Wings Air Rescue into effect in May 2007.

But Sayne said the effective date was delayed until July 1, 2007, to coincide with the beginning of a new budget year.

On Tuesday, EMS Director Sayne said he had not discussed the first-call agreement with Wings Air Rescue with the EMS board before he signed it last year.

But Sayne said he had discussed the potential agreement with Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles and County Attorney Roger Woolsey before it was signed

After Wings Air Rescue officials drafted the agreement, Sayne said, he had it reviewed by County Attorney Woolsey. "He (Woolsey) didn't see any problem with it," Sayne told the 911 Board on Tuesday.

He also told the 911 Board on Tuesday that he hadn't taken the proposed agreement before the Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services Board of Directors last year for approval, because it didn't involve any transfer of funds.

Asked to comment this week on whether Sayne should have sought approval of the agreement with Wings Air Rescue from the EMS Board last year, Rebekah English, the Board's chairman, declined to comment.

Instead, English referred all questions about the agreement with Wings Air Rescue to EMS Director Sayne and Greene County Mayor Broyles.

At the time the agreement with Wings Air Rescue was being discussed last year, Sayne told the Board on Tuesday, no definite location for the helicopter had been established.

Initially, he said, possibly basing a Wings Air Rescue helicopter at the EMS station off Edens Road in Tusculum was discussed.

But because funds were not available to expand the Edens Road EMS station to add crew quarters for a Wings Air Rescue crew or to build a helipad there, Sayne said, that location fell through.

Approximately last June, Sayne said, Wings officials entered into discussions with Laughlin Memorial Hospital that eventually resulted in an agreement for a Wings helicopter to be based at that hospital.

"That benefited us because we were getting the helicopter and training and not having to put up any money for a location for it," Sayne told the 911 Board. "We put the agreement into place July 1 [2007]."

He noted that Wings officials subsequently had had a direct phone line installed between their base and Greene County 911.

"They can launch within four or five minutes of receiving a call," Sayne said.

But before any public announcement had been made that Wings Air Rescue was going to establish a helicopter base at Laughlin Memorial Hospital, Wellmont Health System announced on Aug. 10 plans to base its WellmontOne helicopter at Takoma Regional Hospital.

The plans to base a Wings helicopter at Laughlin Memorial Hospital were announced later the same day.

The Wings II helicopter, that formerly was based in Morristown, went into operation at Laughlin about Sept. 10, 2007, while the WellmontOne helicopter entered service at Takoma Regional Hospital in late March of this year.

"We need to work with the other service (WellmontOne)," Sayne said. "I don't want to leave them out completely."

After the 911 Board meeting, Wellmont Health System was asked to comment on the agreement between Greene County-Greeneville EMS and Wings Air Rescue.

In response, a Wellmont spokesman provided a statement form Carlyle Walton, president of Takoma Regional Hospital.

"We're aware of the agreement, but we believe the citizens of Greene County would be best served in the short term and the long term with an equitable call arrangement for emergency air transport service as opposed to being served by one," Walton wrote.

"We're proud that WellmontOne is based at Takoma Regional Hospital, and are eager to share in meeting the community's needs of having the best possible emergency air transport services.

"We're prepared to work closely with the Greene County-Greeneville EMS and all surrounding emergency personnel."

On Friday morning, the WellmontOne helicopter, which had been flying inter-hospital patient-transfer missions from its base here, flew a victim from the scene of a traffic accident on the West Andrew Johnson Highway to the Johnson City Medical Center. (Please see related news story, Page A1.)

A Greene County 911 spokesman said that agency called Wings Air Rescue first, but was told that the locally-based Wings helicopter could not fly

As a result, the spokesman said, 911 called WellmontOne officials, who agreed to fly the injured patient.