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Using helicopters for secondary transfer--does the patient benefit?
1Department of Anaesthetics, Cheltenham General Hospital. william.brampton@egnhst.org.uk
Anaesthesiologie Und Reanimation
|September 13, 2001
Summary
Helicopter use in medicine, including patient transport, offers limited benefits over ground transport. Investing in well-equipped road retrieval teams is a more effective use of resources for patient care.
Area of Science:
- Emergency medicine
- Medical transport logistics
Background:
- Helicopters are increasingly used for medical evacuations and inter-hospital transfers.
- Their adoption often precedes systematic benefit assessment, despite high costs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of helicopter use in medical transport.
- To compare helicopter transport with traditional road transport methods.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing studies on helicopter medical transport.
- Analysis of helicopter operational characteristics versus road transport.
Main Results:
- Helicopter transport presents significant disadvantages including increased response and scene times, weather dependency, and high costs.
- Limited studies show no proven advantage of helicopter transport over road transport for either primary or secondary patient transfers.
Conclusions:
- The high cost and operational limitations of medical helicopters often outweigh their speed advantage.
- Resources allocated to helicopter services could be more effectively utilized for enhancing ground-based emergency medical services and patient stabilization.