Abstract
Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) use in civilian medical transport has its roots in the use of rotor-wing trauma transport in the military setting. Much of the literature and evidence based on the use of HEMS is therefore related to scene and interfacility transport of injured patients. Regionalization of care and increased understanding of time-criticality of various non-trauma conditions has contributed to growing utilization of HEMS for non-trauma conditions over recent decades. It is common for HEMS to be utilized for a variety of non-trauma situations ranging from neonatal and obstetrics transports to cardiac and stroke transports. The purpose of this review is to overview the use of HEMS for non-trauma, focusing on situations in which there is evidence addressing possible HEMS utility.
Highlights
This discussion strives to overview evidence addressing benefits accrued by utilization of helicopter EMS (HEMS) for non-trauma patients
Given clear data from other facets of the HEMS literature that air medical transport very often results in time savings of this magnitude [16,50], it seems quite likely that stroke care networks will continue to benefit from appropriate use of HEMS
Stroke patients were among those emerging time-critical populations for whom regionalization of care translated into advanced therapies’ being available primarily at regional centers, and even in the late 1990s air medical transport seemed well-positioned to be a part of stroke systems
Summary
This discussion strives to overview evidence addressing benefits accrued by utilization of helicopter EMS (HEMS) for non-trauma patients. If HEMS are going to be used for non-trauma, it is important to assess and optimize resource use by identifying cases in which benefit is most likely to occur. This is important because of the highly visible concentration of costs that are present with helicopters. There is a body of evidence addressing HEMS’ potential outcome impacts, which is often paid insufficient attention This discussion’s goal is to provide information on non-trauma HEMS use, in order to aid interested parties to understand the evidence pertinent to the outcomes dialogue. It is hoped that the review will assist those physicians and systems planners who are pursuing appropriate and judicious employment of potentially life-saving HEMS resources
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