VCU Health opens helicopter base at South Hill hospital

Southern Virginia patients facing life-threatening emergencies can now be transported to facilities offering advanced, specialized care with greater speed.

Last week, VCU Health‘s LifeEvac opened a new helicopter base, called LifeEvac 5, at VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital in South Hill — a move leaders believe will significantly reduce emergency transport times.

“Timing is extremely important in trauma care,” VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital President Sheldon Barr said in a statement.

In 2021, VCU Health System, Bon Secours, Mary Washington Healthcare and Riverside Health System formed an air medical transport alliance. VCU Health provides the clinical staff for the fleet, and aviation services are provided by Med-Trans Corp., a Texas-based medical transport provider.

In addition to the new South Hill base, LifeEvac has bases at Hanover County Municipal Airport in Ashland, Middle Peninsula Regional Airport in Mattaponi and Bon Secours Southside Medical Center in Petersburg. Prior to the opening of LifeEvac 5, Petersburg was the closest base to VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital, according to Cody Main, VCU Health LifeEvac’s aviation outreach coordinator.

Previously, it took about 25 to 30 minutes for a helicopter to get there, Mecklenburg County Emergency Services Director Justin Burch explained at an October 2025 supervisors meeting.

Transport times will be cut in half by having a base at Community Memorial Hospital, according to Burch.

At the October meeting, Dempsey Witt, program director for VCU Health’s LifeEvac, said Mecklenburg County sees about 35 to 37 medical evacuation flights per month.

“Although our staff are all VCU employees, we serve the communities that we’re in,” Witt explained at the meeting. “We take the patient to the closest, most appropriate facility, whether that’s our hospital or not.”

The addition of LifeEvac 5 in Mecklenburg County “represents a major step forward in CMH’s ongoing efforts to strengthen critical care services and move closer to achieving a [Level 3] trauma center designation,” VCU Health stated in a Feb. 4 news release.

The base’s helicopter is equipped with technology typically found in an intensive care unit. LifeEvac 5 is staffed by eight team members: three flight nurses, a base supervisor, three flight paramedics and one flight nurse-paramedic. Med-Trans has four pilots assigned to the base, according to Main. For each flight, there must be a paramedic, a nurse and a pilot on board, he added.

VCU Health did not immediately respond when asked the cost of the new base.