Though he hopes its impact on the Sakonnet area will be minimal, Tiverton Fire Chief William Bailey said Wednesday morning that his department is working to make sure EMS crews can speedily transport patients in need of medical care to the hospital, despite the closure of Interstate 195 West in Providence.

“Minimal right now,” he said of the impact, which is expected to clog traffic coming into the east side of the city for three months or more. “But it’s obviously a concern and we’re working on it.”

Tiverton normally transports patients to St. Anne’s or Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, and sometimes Newport Hospital. On Tuesday, Chief Bailey and other area chiefs were given Department of Health authorization to transport patients from Tiverton to St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, a Level II trauma center.

Rarer are trips to Rhode Island Hospital, the area’s only Level I center, the chief said — and calls that require a run to a Level I center are what worry him.

“If a patient is Level I, we’re stuck having to go to Rhode Island Hospital.”

But there are several points of good news on that front, he said. First, the state on Tuesday opened one emergency travel lane on Route 195 west, which “gives us an option that we can still hopefully get there,” the chief.

The other is a MedFlight helicopter. Tiverton has access to three out of Worcester, Boston and Hartford, and has 11 approved landing zones across town. Bailey said all department trucks and cars have been updated with information about the coordinates and other related information.

While he said the MedFlight copter is a good option in a serious case, making the call on whether to use one is dependent on the time of day, the traffic, and the status of the patient.

Luckily, the chief said, “most of our patients are not Level I.”

Little Compton Fire Chief Richard Petrin was out of the office Wednesday and could not be reached to comment on his town’s preparations.