MOSES LAKE - Northwest MedStar officials cut the ribbon at their new base north of town Thursday.

The new facility, located at 11821 Stratford Road, houses one helicopter with crew quarters next door, said MedStar program director Eveline Bisson. The base is next to a fire station owned by Grant County Fire District No. 5, which built the building and is leasing the space to MedStar, Bisson said. MedStar built and owns the building housing the crew quarters.

Construction of the hangar cost - well, Fire District No. 5 fire chief Dan Smith hasn't added it up yet. "The insurance agent was just asking me that today," he said. He is still adding the invoices, Smith said.

The new facility will allow the company to have emergency medical air transport services available in Moses Lake and Grant County year-round, Bisson said. MedStar used to park one of their helicopters on the lawn at one of the district's fire stations, Smith said, but that chopper was available only during the day and in summer.

"What it really does is put us closer to the patient referrals," Bisson said. Samaritan Hospital is a steady customer, using MedStar to transport 304 patients in 2011, she said. Along with the expanded service to Moses Lake, Othello and Ephrata hospitals, the new base will be serving hospitals in Okanogan, Douglas and Chelan counties, she said. Those areas had been served by MedStar facilities in Spokane and Tri-Cities; the new Moses Lake base means transport times will be cut dramatically, said Samaritan Hospital CEO Andrew Bair.

Time matters in unique ways in an emergency situation, Bair said. "Time is life and death," he said. By ambulance it's 90 minutes to Spokane and an hour to Wenatchee, he said. Transport to Wenatchee via helicopter takes about 25 minutes, he said. "That's huge."

Smith cited the arrangement as an example of an effective public-private partnership, and added he hopes that it lasts for many years to come.