CHARLESTON, W.Va. –HealthNet Aeromedical Services, the not-for-profit critical care transport system in West Virginia, is set to begin celebrating its 40th anniversary, one year early.

Clinton Burley (Photo: HealthNet Aeromedical Services website)

The system, which is cooperatively owned and operated by Marshall Health Network, Vandalia Health and WVU Medicine, will be celebrating the four decades that they have been able to serve patients in Central Appalachia.

President and CEO of HealthNet Clinton Burley told MetroNews that the reason behind celebrating early is because they have been able to serve so many communities across the state that they want everyone to be able to celebrate with them.

“We want to do events recognizing the impact and the patients that we’ve served in their local communities and trying to do all of that in the compressed time frame of one month wasn’t simply possible so we’ve extended this anniversary so everyone can celebrate with us,” Burley said.

HealthNet was first established in 1986 and provide transport to high-risk patients including newborn intensive care patients, pediatric intensive care patients, high-risk obstetric patients, and individuals who require a special medical device.

Prior to 1985, the West Virginia State Police operated daylight only medical helicopters out of Charleston and Morgantown.

Burley said that this effort showed just how much of an impact something like this could have.

“It did show that the impact the helicopters and expert medical crews could have on critically ill patients in West Virginia,” he said.

During that time lack of funding for the helicopter threatened its existence.

That’s when West Virginia’s hospital systems stepped in and took inspiration from St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, who created a system like this in an effort to be able to host the 1972 Olympic Games. This system would have allowed them to ensure that the athletes would be able to get to a medical center if they were injured.

Now, HealthNet services can reach patients who are from rural areas or take them from smaller hospitals to ones that can provide better care.

Burley said that this been the overarching goal since the system was created.

“To get these critically ill patients from remote areas and small community hospitals to the places that can provide the care they need,” he said.

He said that the impact that the services has had on the state just simply can’t be overlooked.

“For a rural state in Central Appalachia to have the depth of critical care transport services that this organization offers is simply unmatched, we’re very fortunate in this state to have the support of the three academic health systems who make this thing fly,” Burley said.

Since it began operations, they have transported more than 120,000 patients.

The system only had two bases in Charleston and Morgantown when it was founded, but Huntington’s base quickly followed in 1987. They have since added bases in Beckley, Buckhannon, Lewisburg, Martinsburg, Millwood, and Moundsville.

HealthNet will soon be putting a big 40 on all of their aircrafts.