ROCHESTER, Minn. – Mayo One is parked on the pavement Wednesday after the medical facility suspended its operations until Thursday.

A grounded air ambulance doesn’t mean healthcare is grounded. Gold Cross Ambulance is picking up the slack.

Patients still get the critical care team, it just will take them a little longer to get there.

First responders can literally transform their rig into Mayo One, just without the air.

“We’ll provide them the driver and the ambulance. They bring all of their equipment. They’re able to put it in the back of an ambulance, and we’re able to give them an experienced driver whose used to driving in these road conditions,” Kate Arms, with Gold Cross, said, “and they’re able to go get that patient in that outlying hospital and get them back here.”

Their goal in this type of weather is to get patients inside and warm as fast and safe as they can.

That means having the right supplies like hot packs and special blankets.

The extreme cold doesn’t necessarily mean more people to help.

“A lot of times we might see a decrease in call volume because people are cold and they just want to hunker down at home,” Arms said, “so sometimes people are a little bit more safe in that sense. But we see a lot more medicals too.”

Even though on the ground may be slower than in the air, patients are still getting the care they need.