Helicopter Usage

[usalsfyre]

My instructor was a CHP paramedic and he did plenty of transports for trauma, chest pain, etc. But yes, they are primarily rescue.

CA is well covered by other services. Using CHP would be a last resort or because there was a rescue aspect to the call.

MSP is well described above. Incidentally also the first civilian medevac in the country.

Perhaps in a funeral home throw them in the back medevac kinda way, but Flight For Life Denver is well acknowledged as the first civilian air medical program in the US. MSP is also essentially a ground ambulance packaged in a helicopter often with LESS experienced providers as lead. Not the example I would look to when building a HEMS program. If you want a true public use HEMS model in the US, look up Travis County Star Flight. MSP simply uses medevac to justify an insane aviation budget.

 

[NPO]

So just out of curiosity and I'm sure this has happened before, but could helicopter 301 (Cal Fire) out of Hemet Ryan transport? There should be a medic on board, but with very limited supplies. I know sometimes they fly their rescues off the bump n grind.

They can only transport if assigned to a state or federal assignment.

 

[NPO]

Ive heard different things. I've heard that 301 is not staffed with a medic (no clue at all if that's true or not). And I have also heard that 301 is too heavy to land on the roof of the trauma center.

LACo Fire transported 2 patients to Kern Medical Center and landed at the high school across the street for the weight reason.

 

[jgmedic]

The actual sheriffs helicopter is staffed with reserve deputies who are trained as medics or volunteers. I know a couple of people at AMR redlands who fly for them and the director of my paramedic program flues for them also.

When I last tested for SBCoFD, the flight program was being transitioned to a SBCoFD medic on board. I'm sure for now they still have the SD air volunteers, but at least one of the copters is now cross staffed with SO and FD personnel.

 

[DesertMedic66]

LACo Fire transported 2 patients to Kern Medical Center and landed at the high school across the street for the weight reason.

The closest landing zone to our hospital is pretty much our airport.

When I last tested for SBCoFD, the flight program was being transitioned to a SBCoFD medic on board. I'm sure for now they still have the SD air volunteers, but at least one of the copters is now cross staffed with SO and FD personnel.

They hired some people for the team just a couple of months ago from AMR redlands.

 

[DPM]

...Virgin pays for London Air Ambulance in UK...

Just want to clarify something here. Even when Virgin was a sponsor, which they are no longer) they paid for a small percentage of the overall operating cost while demanding that they be the only visible sponsor... Which is why you and any others were lead to believe that Virgin was footing the bill.

However London HEMS is entirely funded by charitable donations, so you are correct in thinking that there is no payment required from the end user. This is because London HEMS, like the other air ambulances in the UK, operate within the NHS, which gets its funding from Taxes. London HEMS is therefor not for profit, which is something that most Air Ambulances in the U.S. are not.

 

[CANMAN]

Not denying the cost.

It just seems like extortion to Bill the person who is sick.

Maryland pays for their choppers with a $17 fee every time you register a car.

Easier to swallow than 17K for one person.

Ha, if you think MSP is only getting 17 dollars per taxpayer you're outta your mind. As ERDoc said someone is paying for it, and let me tell you, as a MD Taxpayer, and private flight medic for a non for profit service, MSP is a joke and nothing more than MD paramedics with a gun, and without an expanded scope, providing a fast taxi ride in a flying school bus which cost the taxpayers 5k an hour to run, per aircraft.... The aviation commands budget comes largely from state taxes. The tag renewal fee I doubt is even covering their payments on 12 AW139's at this point.... MSP has the governor in their pocket, and a bunch of BS to get the funding they want, not need.

 

[CALEMT]

12 AW139's

12 helicopters that size for the little state of Maryland? Seems a bit overkill to me.

 

[NPO]

12 helicopters that size for the little state of Maryland? Seems a bit overkill to me.

That's a lot of the argument.
They have an insanely large aviation budget, and use the medical helicopter aspect to justify it... According to some people.

 

[CALEMT]

That's a lot of the argument.
They have an insanely large aviation budget, and use the medical helicopter aspect to justify it... According to some people.

Im still trying to justify that in my head. CA is way bigger than Maryland and CHP only flies 15 helicopters that are Bell Rangers? or some variant. Hell in the county I live in (for LE and FD) theres only 3. 1 is a helitack chopper that does short haul rescues, 1 is CHP that sometimes almost never transports and lastly SO that does not transport.

The go to helicopter service for out here is a private company that has 1 helicopter (to my knowledge) that services a fairly vast area... now that I'm thinking about it I've seen another company that has 1 chopper but I'm not sure where its stationed.

To justify 12 helicopters for a state thats only 12,407 square miles (CA is 163,696 sq miles) and to justify its for medical use is just mind boggling. Im curious as to why a law enforcement agency is such invested birds for medical use, as a taxpayer I would be asking questions. Maybe its another "east coast" thing but that makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Im still trying to justify that in my head. CA is way bigger than Maryland and CHP only flies 15 helicopters that are Bell Rangers? or some variant. Hell in the county I live in (for LE and FD) theres only 3. 1 is a helitack chopper that does short haul rescues, 1 is CHP that sometimes almost never transports and lastly SO that does not transport.

The go to helicopter service for out here is a private company that has 1 helicopter (to my knowledge) that services a fairly vast area... now that I'm thinking about it I've seen another company that has 1 chopper but I'm not sure where its stationed.

To justify 12 helicopters for a state thats only 12,407 square miles (CA is 163,696 sq miles) and to justify its for medical use is just mind boggling. Im curious as to why a law enforcement agency is such invested birds for medical use, as a taxpayer I would be asking questions. Maybe its another "east coast" thing but that makes no sense whatsoever.

We have CHP, Mercy Air, and Reach Air all stationed at the Thermal airport.

Reach: Closest station is Thermal (Reach 11) and second closest being Imperial (Reach 9).
Mercy: Closest station is Thermal (MA18) with the next closest being Hemet (MA3) and 29 Palms (MA29).
There are about 2-3 more companies that we can call out if we are in the Desert Center or Blythe area (Native Air in Parker AZ, and I believe 1 or 2 more).

 

[CALEMT]

There are about 2-3 more companies that we can call out if we are in the Desert Center or Blythe area (Native Air in Parker AZ, and I believe 1 or 2 more).

While covering Blythe for that month or so I wanna say it was Air Methods/ Native Air out of Havasu and Air(Aero) or something out of Phoenix. It was a mix of helicopters and fix winged aircraft.

 

[NPO]

We have 2 helicopters in county, Hall and Mercy Air. Rarely (but twice this month) we can call CalStar from the west, or LACo Fire from the south. We rarely call LA Co because they only staff a single paramedic with no expanded scope. There is also a Mercy Air helo further east, possibly Hemet, that we occasionally put on standby, but I've never seen them launched here.

Im still trying to justify that in my head. CA is way bigger than Maryland and CHP only flies 15 helicopters that are Bell Rangers? or some variant. Hell in the county I live in (for LE and FD) theres only 3. 1 is a helitack chopper that does short haul rescues, 1 is CHP that sometimes almost never transports and lastly SO that does not transport.

The go to helicopter service for out here is a private company that has 1 helicopter (to my knowledge) that services a fairly vast area... now that I'm thinking about it I've seen another company that has 1 chopper but I'm not sure where its stationed.

To justify 12 helicopters for a state thats only 12,407 square miles (CA is 163,696 sq miles) and to justify its for medical use is just mind boggling. Im curious as to why a law enforcement agency is such invested birds for medical use, as a taxpayer I would be asking questions. Maybe its another "east coast" thing but that makes no sense whatsoever.

It's probably an effort at winning a contest where one compares the relative size of their reproductive organ to anothers'.

(Trying to be PC)

 

[RedAirplane]

Im still trying to justify that in my head. CA is way bigger than Maryland and CHP only flies 15 helicopters that are Bell Rangers? or some variant. Hell in the county I live in (for LE and FD) theres only 3. 1 is a helitack chopper that does short haul rescues, 1 is CHP that sometimes almost never transports and lastly SO that does not transport.

The go to helicopter service for out here is a private company that has 1 helicopter (to my knowledge) that services a fairly vast area... now that I'm thinking about it I've seen another company that has 1 chopper but I'm not sure where its stationed.

To justify 12 helicopters for a state thats only 12,407 square miles (CA is 163,696 sq miles) and to justify its for medical use is just mind boggling. Im curious as to why a law enforcement agency is such invested birds for medical use, as a taxpayer I would be asking questions. Maybe its another "east coast" thing but that makes no sense whatsoever.

It's not strictly medical. They are also used in police operations.

Also, until recently, trauma triage criteria recommended medevac based on MOI alone. So they were pretty routine. That's changed with the new guidelines.

 

[CANMAN]

12 helicopters that size for the little state of Maryland? Seems a bit overkill to me.

Exactly why I am angry at the situation as a flight provider who knows better, and a Maryland taxpayer...

98% of the people in this state have had the wool pulled over their eyes by MSP and ever volunteer tool bag in the state rubs one out to the new helicopter when it lands, then later will complain how they pay too much in MD state tax... Shake my head.

 

[CANMAN]

It's not strictly medical. They are also used in police operations.

Also, until recently, trauma triage criteria recommended medevac based on MOI alone. So they were pretty routine. That's changed with the new guidelines.

Lol police operations... They could have effectively don't that with about 3 aircraft... Do you live in MD?

 

[RedAirplane]

Lol police operations... They could have effectively don't that with about 3 aircraft... Do you live in MD?

Grew up there.

 

[Tigger]

It's not strictly medical. They are also used in police operations.

Also, until recently, trauma triage criteria recommended medevac based on MOI alone. So they were pretty routine. That's changed with the new guidelines.

The aircraft that they choose to operate with are also outrageously expensive.

 

[CALEMT]

It's not strictly medical. They are also used in police operations.

Also, until recently, trauma triage criteria recommended medevac based on MOI alone. So they were pretty routine. That's changed with the new guidelines.

Still no reason to justify 12 helicopters for the state smaller than the size of San Bernardino County CA...