Northwest MedStar, the Spokane-based air ambulance transport service, is opening a helicopter base for adult patients in the Pullman-Moscow region, citing the Palouse's growing population.

The new base will be MedStar's fourth. In addition to Spokane, it also has operations in Moses Lake and the Tri-Cities.

MedStar expects to begin operating the medical helicopter base with a crew in the Pullman-Moscow area this month, at first with 12-hour coverage, although an exact location hadn't been finalized as of early June. Around-the-clock service is expected to be in place by the end of July.

Spokane and Tri-Cities bases will continue to support Pullman-Moscow's pediatric, neonatal, and obstetrics patients.

"Having a Northwest MedStar base in the Pullman-Moscow region will help decrease response times to scenes," says Lester Erwin, chief of Whitman County Fire District 12 in Pullman.

Separately, the medical transport service has launched what it calls a MedStar Alert smartphone application that will enable public safety officials who register to use it on mobile devices to send a GPS coordinate of an emergency location to speed MedStar's response time.

However, the actual launching of an air ambulance will still go through normal emergency request channels.

Emergency responders at the scene of an accident or other medical emergency can use the free application to place the Northwest MedStar on standby and to determine availability and estimated time of arrival of the nearest helicopter.

The app will be available both in the Apple and Android markets for tablet devices and smartphones.