CHARLESTON, W.Va. — HealthNet Aeromedical Services has recently announced a new Medical Director to join the ranks.
Amanda Humphries, MD comes to the Charleston-based critical care transport unit from Houston, Texas. She told MetroNews she was thrilled when she found out she got the position, saying becoming an air medical director has been a dream job of hers.
“HealthNet is kind of like one of the legacy programs in our industry, it’s one of the ones that everyone knows about and everyone knows they do an outstanding job, and so I was really honored,” Dr. Humphries said.
Humphries said a major aspect of her new role will be interacting a lot with the frontline medical crews, training and educating both air and ground patient transport employees.
She said she will also be involved with looking at the material after a flight or ground run has been accomplished, analyzing what was done, how it was conducted, and ensuring the teams provided the best care possible to patients.
Humphries said when she officially takes the director’s seat in a couple of weeks, she will at first mostly be doing some observing and learning the ropes for herself, as well.
“I’ll work with the senior leadership very closely to make sure that we’re providing everything that our frontline teams need to be successful,” she said.
While in Texas, Humphries served as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Health and Science Center, emergency department physician at Memorial Hermann Medical Center, medical director for the City of Sugar Land Fire-EMS, and Assistant Medical Director for AMR-Houston.
HealthNet President and CEO Clinton Burley said Humphries’s credentials stuck out to them when trying to select a new medical director, having not only significant professional experience within the field of EMS transport work, but a rich academic and training background within those areas, as well.
“This position generated interest from stellar physicians from all corners of the country,” Burley said. “Our selection process was methodical and included multi-day finalist visits across our system. Through this process, it became clear that Dr. Humphries was the right person to join and lead the medical direction of our program.”
Humphries is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and she completed her emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
During her residency, she served as a flight physician with UC Air Care and Mobile Care rotor wing fleet, eventually becoming the Resident Assistant Medical Director for the program.
Following this, Humphries served as a flight physician with the Lifeguard program at the University of New Mexico Medical Center in Albuquerque upon entering the EMS Fellowship program there. She completed both rotor and fixed wing transports while in the southwest.
Working in both ground fire EMS and air EMS, she said her new role will not be anything too far off from what she has already been doing.
“I have had the opportunity really to learn from other senior people in this industry how to do these things, I had the opportunity to provide education,” she said.
Humphries said working with new people in the industry and getting them ready for what’s to come is a major asset she feels she can bring to the table within the new role, and preparing them for what she said is no easy job.
“We provide a critical service to the community, and provide medical care to people who are in their most extreme and worst moments, and that’s, you know, such a huge responsibility,” Humphries said.
Humphries said she will be starting the position around Nov. 19.