Harrison’s new rooftop helipad — part of the hospital’s $13-million ER expansion that opened last month — was tested on March 25, with a trial landing and takeoff by a crew from Airlift Northwest. The Seattle-based non-profit firm operates the region’s medical air transport service.
   Airlift Northwest conducted a safety inspection of the rooftop landing strip and will also train hospital staff who will be assisting in the transfer of patients who need the services of Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center — the only Level I trauma center serving a four-state region.
   Annually, some 150 Harrison patients are transported to Harborview via medical helicopter. Until now, patients have made the seven-minute trip from a designated landing zone at the corner of Sheridan and Old Wheaton Way. That site — located three blocks from Harrison — requires ambulance service from the hospital. Transfers from Harrison Silverdale will continue to take place in a designated section of the Kitsap Mall’s north parking lot.
   Since 1982, the Seattle-based nonprofit organization has provided emergency air-transport service to critically ill patients throughout Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Western Canada via helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Each flight team consists of two registered nurses with extensive critical-care trauma experience; certain flights also include a neonatal/pediatric critical-care specialist.