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They’re roomier, faster and better equipped than before. And come this fall, two new state-of-the-art helicopters will begin transporting patients from accident scenes and hospitals throughout Central Iowa.

Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines and Iowa Health – Des Moines will each put a new helicopter into service later this year to replace older models. The new aircraft will be equipped with advanced safety features and will enable the hospitals to provide more comprehensive airborne emergency medical services to Central Iowa residents.

Coincidentally, both whirlybirds are scheduled to arrive in Des Moines today for a preview by staff before they go to Denver to be outfitted with medical equipment.

Both Iowa Health’s and Mercy’s new West Des Moines hospitals, scheduled to open this fall, will be equipped with helipads and will be serviced by the new helicopters. Iowa Health’s Life Flight will continue to be based at Iowa Methodist Medical Center; Mercy One is based at the hospital’s main campus north of downtown.

Iowa Health launched the first air helicopter service in the state 30 years ago when it launched Life Flight in 1979. Mercy began a competing service, originally known as Mercy Air Life (now Mercy One) in 1986.

“We couldn’t be more excited about it,” said Dan Keogh, Mercy’s director of emergency transport. By November, Mercy expects to take delivery of the EMS Bell 429 helicopter, which will be the first production model of the newly designed aircraft in the world, by November, Keough said.

Iowa Health, which operates Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Iowa Lutheran Hospital and Blank Children’s Hospital, has ordered an American Eurocopter EC 145, a workhorse that has been in production for several years. The twin-engine helicopter, like Mercy’s new machine, will be equipped to fly in rough weather using instrument flight rules.

“This will give us the capability of flying into some weather conditions we weren’t able to fly into before,” said Life Flight Program Manager Evelyn Jackson. “That’s probably the biggest plus for us.”

Both aircraft will also be equipped with a Terrain Avoidance Warning System, which alerts pilots to hazards such as wind turbines, cellular antennas and 801 Grand. Additionally, the cockpits in each helicopter are designed so that the pilots can use night-vision goggles.

Faster response times will be one of the biggest benefits of the new Mercy One helicopter, said Keough, who is trained as a flight paramedic and still regularly flies on missions. With a cruising speed of 180 mph, or about 50 mph faster than the current helicopter, the new aircraft will be able to reach Centerville in 15 minutes, shaving five minutes off the current response time.

“I got into this because I like to take care of people,” he said with a broad smile. “There’s something to be said for putting on that flight suit and being out there with our patients and our staff. It truly is the most enjoyable part of my job.”

Mercy retired its original 1986 Bell 222 helicopter in April 2008 when it became too expensive to maintain and operate the aging aircraft. It has since been leasing a “loaner” helicopter from Denver-based Air Methods Corp. until it takes delivery of its new helicopter, which it will lease from Bell.

The fixed-lease arrangement, which includes the same four pilots which Mercy now uses as well as two mechanics, costs the hospital approximately $2 million per year. Last year, Mercy had 1,275 air-transport requests, of which it responded to about 700.

About one-third of the missions Mercy One flies are directly to accident scenes, while the remainder are transfers from rural hospitals, Keough said.

“We’ve seen very good growth over the last five years,” he said. “This aircraft will really just add to that.”

Because emergency medical technicians are receiving more extensive training, the trend has moved toward more trauma patients being transported by ambulance to rural hospitals rather than being airlifted directly from accident scenes, Jackson said. Consequently, “we’re handling more transfers from smaller rural hospitals, rather than going right to the scene of accidents.”

Iowa Health last replaced its helicopter with a new model seven years ago. Jackson said Life Flight, which flies about 600 missions per year, will probably maintain the same service area with its new helicopter. “Most of our flights are (within) about a 60-mile radius, though we have flown patients to Mayo (Clinic), and we do go into Missouri,” she said.

Iowa Health will lease the new Life Flight helicopter from Air Methods Corp., the company that leases its present helicopter.

The larger cabin in the new Life Flight helicopter will allow a wider array of medical equipment to be carried, which will increase the types of patients that can be transported, Jackson said. For instance, the new helicopter will have room to carry a balloon pump for cardiac patients.

“We see this giving us the capability of a newer aircraft with the better safety equipment on it,” she said, “plus a bigger space so we can use the right specialty team mix and medical technology. So safety and improved patient care are the real values.”