Competition among medical helicopter companies continues to sharpen across the Inland Northwest as Life Flight Network opens its second northern Idaho base in two years – a region that for two decades has been served by Spokane-based Northwest MedStar. The expansion by Life Flight into Sandpoint is a multimillion-dollar venture for the Oregon air-ambulance service. It will station one helicopter ...

By Lisa Buie, Times Staff Writer Tuesday, February 7, 2012 TRINITY — When staffers shut down Community Hospital on Tuesday and moved patients to the Medical Center of Trinity, it was as if they had done it before. Probably because they had, at least in practice. "Moving a hospital is like changing the engine of an airplane while it's still in flight," said Nancy Bowen, a consultant with ...

The number of emergency calls increased by 22 percent on San Juan Island in 2011