2015 was a record year for the STARS air ambulance in Manitoba. It flew 541 missions. The previous record was set in 2012 with 187 flights. Grant Therrien is the Base Director for STARS and is also a flight paramedic. He explains what led to the increase.

"We were able to establish a number of new initiatives around dispatching the asset so, both at scene calls and for inter-facility transfers, we've got some new processes in play. That's resulted in a much higher number. And really it's resulted in the number that we were anticipating when the program was set up initially."

Therrien says 375 of the missions last year were to emergency scenes and the other 166 were emergency inter-hospital transfers. He is expecting to set another new record for flights this year because a helipad is scheduled to open this spring at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.

"I think that might contribute to a few extra missions in the close proximity areas where, what we see today is a faster transport by ground assets versus air. An example would be a collision on the perimeter or something in the immediate area of Winnipeg where we can now make a difference because, instead of stopping at the airport, we would be going directly to the rooftop there at the trauma centre."

Therrien adds the helipad will greatly speed up all patient transports.

"When we land at the (Winnipeg International) airport and board an ambulance, we're adding about 20-25 minutes to the overall transport time. So as you can imagine, with the opening of a helipad, we would be saving that time. That's really going to have an impact on patients with time sensitive conditions that need to be in an O.R. (Operating Room) suite or need to been seen by the specialists that HSC has."

Therrien extends a big thank-you to the many communities and donors who support them.

Record of missions flow by STARS:
2011     162
2012     187
2013     177
2014     105
2015     541