Helicopter emergency medical service patient transport safe at night?

Dutch helicopter emergency medical services are available 24/7. Working without daylight brings additional challenges, both in patient care and in-flight operation. We retrospectively evaluated the safety of this nighttime helicopter transportation of patients.

Our helicopter emergency medical service database was reviewed for all patients transported by helicopter during nighttime. Both interhospital transports and patients transported from the accident location to a hospital were included. The time traveled by helicopter was compared with the time that road transportation of these patients would have taken.

In total, 513 patients were transported by helicopter. Of these patients, 72 were transported during nighttime (14%); the median age was 25.3 years (range, 1.1-73.9 years). The median flight time to the hospital was 16 minutes (range, 5-42 minutes). To travel by road, this would have taken a median of approximately 44 minutes (range, 23-100 minutes). When comparing these travel times, a significantly faster transport time by helicopter during nighttime was observed (P < .001). Three non-flight-specific incidents were noted.

We conclude that helicopter transportation of patients without daylight is safe and fast in a Dutch setting.