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Ems Choppers
How do you us them??????...
Do you have them put on stand by when called out to a mva or a bad call ????.
Do you wait on scene or drive to meet them on the way to the trauma hospital.
In my area the closest Chopper 35 mins to a hour away..
Alot of time we load pt then drive up 81 to a landing zone then unload pt to chopper..
Closet Trauma center 100 miles away both directions...
Just would like to know how other people do it ..
If they have one or would they like to see one come to there area....
Do you have them put on stand by when called out to a mva or a bad call ????.
Do you wait on scene or drive to meet them on the way to the trauma hospital.
In my area the closest Chopper 35 mins to a hour away..
Alot of time we load pt then drive up 81 to a landing zone then unload pt to chopper..
Closet Trauma center 100 miles away both directions...
Just would like to know how other people do it ..
If they have one or would they like to see one come to there area....
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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We have New England Life Flight out of UMass Medical Center Worcester and Boston Med Flight, based on the civilian side of Hanscom AFB.
Drive time to Worceter can be anywhere from 15 to 35 minutes, depending on the time of day, to get to Boston can be anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour+, once again, depending on the time of day.
LifeFlight is an 8 minute flight from the pad @ UMMC to the pad at Marlborough Hospital, it's about the same from Hanscom.
We have 14 predesignated LZ's in town. We will send an Engine to cover 11 of them. We don't cover the helipad at the hospital, or the one at Hewlett Packard or Boston Scientific, as they are FAA designated and meet the safety criteria. We do send an Engine to cover any landings on the highway or other location other than the LZ's.
Both aeromedical services have a specific set of criteria for medical emergencies and trauma.
Some people ask "why fly when you can drive"... time is life!
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Permalink Reply by Tim Gault on
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Our polcies are pretty liberal however for trauma we use the CDC guidelines and if the a scene time plus transport time greater than 30 minutes we use Air Transport for trauma. Most flights(medical and trauma) are high acuity patients. All ATU transports are reviewed as part of th emonthly QI process.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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We're on a barrier island with a nice community hospital that can handle just about anything on adult patients, except for major trauma or critical burns. We're only 10 to 15 minutes by air from a Level 1 trauma center in Savannah, GA, over two bodies of water. By ground it's closer to an hour.
Our standard is to put the helo on standby based on scene size-up or obvious major trauma with life threats.
If the initial patient assessment confirms the initial impression, we get the bird in the air.
We don't have many places we can land the helo, but we do have some LZ's pre-selected by GPS.
The primary LZ is the helispot at our friendly local ARFF station at the airport.
If the primary helo is not available, the backup is about 30 minutes away in Charleston, SC.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Hood on
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In our area, we live in rural AZ desert and closest trauma centers are Vegas and Phoenix, if we get get an accident 30-50 miles out, which is very common, we will launch a helocopter, 2 are about 30 mins out and 1 is about 50. When we arrive on scene and the patients dont require a helo, we will cancel them, but in our situation, we usually always launch before anyone is on scene, better to cancel than to wish you had one. After that, either they arrive at the scene and the freeway is closed or AMR loads them and we meet at an exit and establish an LZ. Lately the Med director at the hospital has been saying all the rural depts need to stop requesting so much, but I look at it as a huge benefit to get them going. He'll care when its his family on the edge of life and death.
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Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on
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When we have an MVA we will put Lifeforce on standby once we arrive on scene. If we get a call and dispatch tells us there is bad head truma ect we will put them on stand by in route. We almost never put them on standby for a medical. We usely meet land them about a mile or so away and drive to meet them. Our clostest trauma center is 30 min away by driving code, 5 by flying. Our Lifeforce is station at the trauma center.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Kenyon on
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We have the option of flying LifeLion out of Hershey, PA or StatMed out of York, depending on who is available. Being that we are only 10-15 minutes from a Level 1 Trauma Center, We rarely dispatch Air Medical unless we expect there to be a prolonged extrication (>20 minutes). We usually scramble the helicopter once we arrive on scene and expect there to be a prolonged extrication time. On occasion, County will advise that they are placing Air Medical on standby because of the reports they are getting from the scene. Once we make the determination to fly, an Engine is usually sent to an LZ, they are then ground contact for the helicopter.
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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This is at the discretion of the Paramedic-in-charge. If the call comes in as a serious trauma, then we will request that the Chopper is put on standby. If the call comes in as otherwise and we arrive to find a serious trauma, we will have the Chopper meet us at the nearest desgnated LZ(landing zone). The only time that we will wait on scene for the Chopper to land where we are is for prolonged extrication or entrapment.
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Permalink Reply by Steven on
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Starflight's new choppers go in sideways, not rear load. We did an in-service with their crews last spring and then had the new chopper come in for a mock MVC for the school district a week later. I'm also a department photographer so I have pictures to prove it... They don't have tail rotors though and they are much quieter than the older birds. The choppers use a vectored thrust system instead of the rotor but it's a little hot and not recommended to be near, even in turnout gear. They are much smaller and lighter too.
We have Starflight which is operated jointly by the county sheriff's department and a commercial ambulance service. We can also call in MercyFlight either from Buffalo or Olean, or Lifestar out of Pennsylvania. We also have three trauma centers they go to, ECMC in Buffalo and either St. Vincent's or Hamot in Erie, PA. Millard Filmore Gates Circle in Buffalo is our stroke center, though Hamot has that too. We also split cardiac between St.V's, Hamot, ECMC, and Millard Filmore. Peds usually goes to Women's and Children's in Buffalo. Burns usually end up in ECMC.
We're lucking in that all of these hospitals are within an hour's distance by roadway and about 15-20 minutes by air. It takes usually 10-15 to get a chopper at the scene and we have a helipad at the commercial ambulance quarters which is ten minutes by roadway. There's also a small airport nearby for refueling if they need it.
Starflight goes on standby for serious MVC's and major trauma and can be called in by EMS at the scene, weather permitting. Usually cardiac and stroke patients go to the local ER first then the chopper is brought in for a transfer if warranted.
We also have a section of I-90 and have brought in three different choppers on some multiple PI wrecks. It was really impressive turning an on-ramp into a heliport for that.
Starflight really knows what they're doing. Great track record, zero crashes, over twenty years in business (at least). Two pilots, flight nurse and flight medic. They set the bar and they set it high.
And they don't fly in questionable weather. VFR always.
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Permalink Reply by Matthew Bain on
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The fire department ment arrives on the scene first and they decide. The 2nd Chief is an ALS TECH and makes the call. This is one less thing i would have to worry about.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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We have a Trauma Center about 20 mins (driving) away that has 3 birds. If we know we have a bad call, we can put them on standby and they go out and get in the helicopter, start it up, and wait to her a go or no. If we have to drive to meet, we would, but being that its mostly a ten minute flight tops to my city, we don't need to. It makes a huge difference when it comes to bad calls.
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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Living in Maryland and close to the Wash DC area you have a choice when you call dispatch for a chopper.
Maryland State Police have the state covered with 12 choppers (Troopers)and US Park Police have 2 that fly out of DC(Eagle) and then Med Star in DC (Med Star) has a fleet they use for hospital to hospital and then there are county PD choppers in Fairfax Va. and different hospitals services provided choppers in Northen VA.
The police choppers will land at or near to the scene in Maryland. Dispatches will put the choppers on stand by until the call is determed by the ground crews for their services on the type of call 911 gets.
To get a chopper now you have to be sure all the catagories of trauma are there before they fly now since the crash over a year ago of a MSP chopper (Trooper 2)that killed the 2 man crew,1 EMT,1 patient and injuried the second patient
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Permalink Reply by D.MAN on
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WERE I LIVE WE CAN HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO TO SOME OF OUR CALLS.WE HAVE A LOT OF RURAL AREAS.IT DEPENDS ON THE CALL AND HOW FAR IT IS OUT.WE GENERALY HAVE THEM PUT ON STAND-BY OR EVEN GET THEM ENROUTE.WE HAVE MED-FLIGHT,WINGS AND WELLMONT-1 THAT ARE WITHIN 15-25 MINUTES AWAY.WE GENERLY USE MED-FLIGHT IT IS CLOSER TO US.THEY TELL US IT IS ETTER TO GET THEM STARTED AND CANCELL THEM IF WE DONT NEED THEM THEN TO NEED THEM AND HAVE TO WAIT ON THEM.
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