Pre-Flight Risk Assessment in Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Helicopters

Abstract

The EMS industry has been the subject of several television and newspaper articles (Harvey and Jensen, 1987) which emphasized the negative aspects, (e.g., fatal accidents and high accident rates), rather than the life saving services performed. The accident rate of the EMS industry is five times as high as that of other civil helicopters. This high accident rate coupled with the dramatic rise in the number of programs (from a single service at its inception in 1972 to over 180 today, Spray, 1987), prompted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to study the accidents that occurred between May 11, 1978 and December 3, 1986 (NTSB, 1988). The NTSB report concluded that “Sound pilot judgment is central to safe flight operations.” They further stated that “… factors unique to EMS helicopter operations—such as the influence of the mission itself, program competition, and EMS program management perspectives—can drastically influence pilot judgment during the EMS mission.” One of the most difficult decisions that a pilot must make is whether to accept or decline a mission. A pre-flight risk assessment system (SAFE) was developed at NASA-Ames Research Center for civil EMS operations to aid pilots in making this decision objectively. The ability of the SAFE system to predict risk profiles of missions was tested at an EMS operator. The results of this field study demonstrated the the usefulness of SAFE was highly dependent on the type of mission flown.