In an effort to improve safety for its employees and the patients it transports, Northwest MedStar recently provided helicopter landing zone kits to 15 rural fire and ambulance districts in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Each kit includes a set of five LED strobe lights that are designed to show MedStar's critical-care helicopters where to land during the night, says Eveline Bisson, MedStar's director. Responders can set up the lights either in a square or a circle configuration, she says, adding that the MedStar helicopters require a space that's at least 75 feet square.

"If we are going to a scene that's not lighted and it's night, which is frequent, (the kits) enhance the ability to see where we need to go," Bisson says.

She adds that the helicopter pilots can see the battery-powered lights from several miles away with the aid of night-vision goggles.

Though the helicopters already are equipped with a high-beam light on the front of the aircraft that they can also use to identify a safe landing area, the kit's lights help ensure quicker, safer landings, Bisson says. Both factors are crucial when a patient needs immediate medical care, she adds.

The safety kits each cost $180. The Inland Northwest Health Services Foundation Employee Giving Program bought them for the organization, she says.

MedStar is a service of Inland Northwest Health Services, the Spokane-based nonprofit that provides collaborative health care services on behalf of several member organizations here.

Bisson says MedStar gave the kits to the fire and ambulance districts to which it had flown most often during the past year.

Some of the first entities that received them include Spokane County fire districts in Clayton, Rockford, and Chattaroy, Wash. Eastern Washington emergency responders outside of Spokane County that received the kits included those in Walla Walla, Wellpinit, Colville, Davenport, Newport, and Moses Lake, as well as Priest Lake, Idaho.

Before receiving the kits, each of the 15 rural emergency medical service agencies were required to take a landing-zone safety training course offered by MedStar, Bisson says.

Bisson says several MedStar pilots report they've already been aided in landings by the strobe lights when responding to transport requests by the agencies that now use the kits.

MedStar plans to continue providing the landing-zone kits to other medical response agencies in the Northwest as more funds become available, Bisson says.