Helipad Temporarily Closed

As construction continues at Uvalde Memorial Hospital to replace the facility’s chillers and generator, project progress means slight adjustments to day to day activity. Since the project began in April, the parking lot located directly off of Garner Field Road has been partially closed but patient and visitor parking remain unaffected. The project, however, will call for slightly bigger adjustments to operation with the temporary closure of the hospital’s helipad from June 20- July 7 and again on October 1. Air transport capabilities will still be available but helicopters will land in the east parking lot in the interim.
“Air transport services will be available regardless of construction but, as always, dependent on weather conditions. There will simply be a change in landing site,” said Julia Rodriguez, emergency department director.
Construction taking place directly next to the helipad will mean that during the scheduled dates, air transports will be relocated to the east side of the facility and helicopters will land on Kessler Boulevard, in between Uvalde Memorial Hospital and the Kate Marmion Regional Cancer Medical Center.
“Patients being airlifted will not be affected by the change. Patients will still be prepped for transport in the Emergency Department so, essentially, air transport patients will just exit through a different door to get to the helicopter,” explained Rodriguez.
The hospital’s security and plant operations team will work together to carry out the process of blocking off parking, assisting the helicopter with landing, and redirecting traffic during any air transport.
“While traffic will be temporarily blocked during these landings, AirLIFE will make every effort to keep onsite time to a minimum following their goals and guidelines, as usual. If for any reason an anticipated prolonged time on site occurs, the helicopter will land at UMH, unload their transport team, wait at the airport and return when the patient and crew are ready for transport,” Rodriguez said.
The temporary landing location was evaluated and selected by AirLIFE pilots, hospital security, and the hospital plan operations team as an ideal location. Hospital and AirLIFE officials do not anticipate any issue with number of transports during the temporary closer despite the July 4 holiday falling into the allotted time period. During the same period in 2013, 10 air transports took place hospital-wide.