Helicopter emergency medical services (doctor-helicopter) in Fukushima Prefecture: present state and problems

The purpose of this study is to identify the problems in operating an emergency medical service helicopter with an emergency medicine doctor on board (doctor-helicopter) in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, which covers wide regions and many rural areas. The study looked at the numbers of flights and patients during the 523 days since the start of the doctor-helicopter service at the Fukushima Medical University Hospital. The items investigated were: number of flights, number of helicopter dispatches per month, number of patients, the hospitals where patients were taken to, the fire department dispatch centers that requested the doctor-helicopter, and the number of times each doctor flew on the helicopter. There were 450 flights. When the service was started, there were a few flights, but they gradually increased. The majority of the flights were to emergency scenes (295), while 75 flights were interfacility transports of critically ill patients, 79 flights were cancelled after take-off, and one flight was for a disaster relief operation. The nature of requests differed greatly depending on the fire department dispatch center requesting the service. The majority of patients were trauma patients (62.2%). Stroke (8.5%) and acute coronary syndrome (5.2%) patients requiring emergency treatment were fewer than anticipated. The final destination hospitals were appropriate hospitals in the region. Because the number of flight doctors is small, the burden on individual doctors is large. A system for early on-site diagnosis and helicopter request by emergency rescue team is required to maintain a high quality of emergency care.