Bledsoe talks about HEMS.

[Jon]

I'm gonna go against Bledsoe on this one.
Having worked in the dispatch room of a Central Florida HEMS agency, I saw the abuse, misuse and the good that the aircraft provided.
STEMIs from small, rinkydink "hospitals" where the interventions of the flight crew were sometimes better then those the docs did, flying into rural areas to "ER"s and picking up Jethros that walked into the ER missing digits, limbs etc, and bringing them to a Level II or greater Trauma Center, so they can be reattached, and Jethro can continue pickin his banjo.
I also saw the fear that EMS crews had when it came to multi system trauma, and the flew the pt out..... from FIVE MILES AWAY.

I wish this was facebook. Because I'd 'like' this post.


Around me, I don't have a close trauma center by ground. We have several... they are all at or beyond a 45 minute drive. We fly a lot of serious trauma.

We do have a trauma center opening 15 minutes away - but they won't be accredited until fall 2011... so we'll still have to go the distance, probably.

 

[reaper]

Reaper, the aircraft I dispatched routinely checked weather before lifting off, and anyone on the aircraft could, at anytime, decline the flight for whatever reason.
"Sterile Cockpit" was heavily enforced, and flights were turned down due to weather.
The aircraft has gone to other hospitals that were further away, rather then the "home" hospital due to weather.
I am a bit biased, but we were extremely safety conscious. There was an aircraft crash many years before I got there, and that lead to many of the safety plans.

I am not talking about turning down flights for safety reasons. I am talking about the abuse of their use, for reasons that are not warranted.