How do medevac helicopters work?

[Cartooniverse]

@Jackmannii

Hard to imagine there are that many cases where there’s a major traffic accident or other trauma leading first responders to conclude that ambulance transport to local hospitals is undesirable, and then having enough landing space at the site to accommodate a helicopter, especially in urban areas.

Oh, it’s impressive to watch the Fire and EMS and Police quick coordinate to have their headlights and worklights shed immense light on a Landing Zone. Unless winds are really up ( and allowing for the incredible skill set of these chopper pilots ), you can put a bird down without a lot of room to spare.

I’ve seen road flares and cones used to demark a completely visible and safe LZ.

[Spiderman]

@Jackmannii

@Dewey_Finn

And note that these helicopters aren’t only used for transport from accident sites to hospitals. Sometimes, they are used to move patients from one hospital to another, often rural hospitals to larger academic ones that have special skills.

Emphasizing that this is the case for most helicopter patient transports.

True, something like 80+% are inter-hospital transfers; however, many of them are for medical cases, not traumas - the patient needs a dedicated stroke center, or immediate surgery (something a rural hospital can’t do at 8pm on a weeknight or at all on a weekend because they don’t staff surgery dept 24x7.

@Jackmannii

The patient is likely seen and initially stabilized at a local hospital and then transported to a specialty or Level I trauma facility like Children’s Hospital of Oakland - by ambulance, helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft.

Maybe in a rural area but we never did that. Protocols state that we must take a patient to the closest appropriate facility. That means we can’t take you to the hospital where your doctor has admitting privileges because you want to go there, they can send your records over to the closer hospital. That also means we can bypass the local, general hospital ER to take someone directly to a trauma center. Living in Greater Suburbia & having multiple trauma centers around that wasn’t an issue for us as we’d frequently drive them to the trauma center.

@Jackmannii

Hard to imagine there are that many cases where there’s a major traffic accident or other trauma leading first responders to conclude that ambulance transport to local hospitals is undesirable, and then having enough landing space at the site to accommodate a helicopter, especially in urban areas.

I don’t think we ever flew from the scene; we put them in the ambulance & drive ¼, ½, or a mile to a local park, school, or helipad (some FD have them on their property) where we’d meet the helo.

Very rarely are patients flown in an urban setting, & it’s not because of lack of suitable LZs. There is some time lost in the helo landing, spooling down the blades enough, the medic/nurse getting out & walking over to the ambulance, getting in, getting a report & then packaging them up for transport on the helo’s smaller litter. That can be 5, 10, or even more minutes. In that amount of time the ambulance can just drive them straight to the trauma center, sometimes even quicker than the helo transfer can take place.

[Tride]

I’ve participated in 2 backcountry medevacs, both in winter. The first was a broken femur, the 2nd a broken scapula, many ribs, and a collapsed lung. In both cases it was very necessary for all of the group to participate in the rescue–both getting medics from the skip to the victim in deep snow, and then getting the victims to the helicopter. The first was before cell phones, much less satellite GPS communicators. That was a real PITA–had to ride out, call S&R, get them in with a sat phone and GPS, and then they called in the helicopter. We got the ship airborne just before dark after a 10am injury and all got frostbit on the way home. The 2nd was 10 years ago and we had SPOT units and cell phones and went much more quickly and smoothly. The first ship was a medium–think Huey–the 2nd a light–407 or A-Star.

In CO various licenses and permits come with SAR insurance. Hunting, fishing and hiking licenses/permits, as well as dirt bike or ATV tags all include it. It’s a good deal.

[Loach]

@Spiderman

MD & NJ (if I remember correctly) are handled by State Police helos that are setup for both.

In New Jersey the State Police do have medevac helicopters, Northstar and Southstar specifically. They are not the only ones operating in the state. If they are the closest and are dispatched then there is no cost to the patient.

@Dewey_Finn

And note that these helicopters aren’t only used for transport from accident sites to hospitals. Sometimes, they are used to move patients from one hospital to another, often rural hospitals to larger academic ones that have special skills.

I was in the local hospital and they told me a helicopter was on the way to take me to a different hospital. That was not a good feeling. I later got a bill for what my insurance didn’t pay. Around $13,000 if I recall correctly. I happened to know someone who used to work for that particular company and she gave me the number of someone to talk to in order to try and reduce the amount. After playing phone tag for awhile I stopped calling. I didn’t get any other bills and I just decided to ignore it. Never heard anything else and I was never negatively affected by the bill.

[robby]

I live in a pretty rural part of eastern Connecticut. The nearest hospital is about 30 minutes away. However, there is a standalone 24-hour Emergency Room about 15 minutes away. (The hospital it is associated with is across the Connecticut River about 15 miles further away.)

Anyway, the standalone ER has a helipad right outside the building. If a trauma case shows up that exceeds their capability, they can easily transport a patient to one of the larger hospital ERs by medevac helicopter.