Who pays for the flight?

In most cases, the HEMS providers are private companies (not government programs). This means that the patient’s health insurance provider pays for the flight- not the taxpayer. Some HEMS providers do not pursue collections against those who cannot pay (my company just takes it as a loss), and just accept it as part of the cost of providing a service to the community.

Is abiliy to pay a factor?

No. Trauma patients are not screened prior to transport. If the determination is made that a patient needs to be flown, then that patient will be flown. There is no discussion regarding insurance coverage until the conclusion of treatment. However, if a patient is conscious, they have the same right to refuse a flight as they do to refuse a ground EMS unit’s services.

Where are patients flown from?

Wherever the accident/illness occurred- roadway, beach, residence, hospital (transfers), etc…

Why are patients flown?

I am a pilot, not a medical crew member- therefore, I do not make that determination. That being said, you need to Google the following term: “The Golden Hour”.

Time, or more accurately, a lack of time, is the reason that patients are flown. The pick-up point might be not so far from a hospital, but due to rush hour traffic, it might take far too long to transport by ground. it’s about saving a life, brain, tissue, heart muscle.

How often are patients flown?

There are too many variables to be able to provide an honest answer to that question. If Fire / EMS does not call for a helicopter at an accident scene, or if there are no patient transfers to/from other hospitals, then the helicopter sits quietly on the pad. That being said, I would say that most patient transfers that are done by helicopter are the following: neonatal transfers to a neonatal facility, high risk OB to a women’s hospital, cardiac patients to a cardiac facility. Patients are always transferred by ground if they are stable and can tolerate a ground transfer.

Which hospital should have a helipad?

The hospitals that can offer the highest level of trauma care / burn care / cardiac care / OB & neonatal care. It is very common for a helicopter to fly right over several hospitals with a trauma patient onboard, while enroute to an appropriate trauma center. Why? Because the patient needs a nigh level of care, or they will no survive- all hospitals are NOT created equal.

Believe it or not, helicopters have landed at nearby hospitals with trauma patients, and have been told that they need to go elsewhere! Every hospital has an ER, but many cannot deal with trauma- they simply do not have the equipment or the qualified staff on duty or on call.

Stanford, etc… I used to live next door to UCSF Hospital. I don’t live in California right now. Distance / time= helicopter flies at about 2 miles per minute, as the crow flies. You will have to do the measuring.

That said, trauma patient flights need to go to the CLOSEST APPROPRIATE TRAUMA CENTER. When we leve an accident scene, that is where we will be headed, because a life is hanging in the balance.

Social services:

I have transported infants who have had been ejected from a motor vehicle during a major collision, children who have drowned or who have been run over by a car while riding their bicycles…. my experience during those flights was that a really good social services program was not going to help them survive their injuries.

Some people in this forum seem not to want to accept the reality that we are talking about the preservation of life here- that somebody’s mother might live because a helicopter is landing at the hospital. As is usually the case in a metropolis, people are more concerned with their own personal wealth and making sure that the world does not start knocking on their own little door….

SFGH or elsewhere:

As a person who has actually had be transported by helicopter after a horrible accident where 2 deer ran in front of my motorcycle and almost killed me, I will say this- until you or a loved one have to be transported by helicopter to the nearest appropriate trauma facility in order to survive your injuries, you cannot make the statement that, “it doesn’t matter if I’m on the gurney or someone else.”

What I am saying is that when it is your child who is bleeding to death in your arms, you will not think the way that you are thinking right now; you will think differently. To state otherwise is simply a callous statement designed to insulate you from your true feelings- that your property value is more important to you than the life of another.

I lived in San Francisco for most of my life- I was an artist, a vegan, a protester,
etc… it was not until I moved away and lived in other communities that I realized how conflicted and callous city people can be- they worry about the environment and they recycle and ride their bikes to work, but they will walk right over somebody bleeding to death in the street. They are selective with their love and concern, and they tend to choose to be concerned with things that are faceless, because dealing with a real face or a beating heart is much too personal for them- they avoid contact with most things that have the potential to disrupt the balance of their lives that they have struggled for so many years to achieve. They can only be passionate about things that they are able to hold at a distance.

Safer landing on a ship / piers?

It doesn’t matter to me where I land- but if the patient is going to have to be transported by ground after that, then what was the point of flying them?

If I had $4 mil to spend:

I would probably publish a newspaper that documents how much money celebrities make, and how little they really contribute to this world.

That said, the question (restated) is, “who do you save”? That is between me and my god. Who do you want to save?

1000 or so people:

While this is only my opinion, I believe that things would unfold this way:

1. Initially, perceived property values might go down ever so slightly, out of fear.

2. After residents experience the fact that the helipad will actually be used so infrequently, and experience first-hand that the ambient sounds of the city mask most of the helicopter noise that is generated during those infrequent operations, that property values will go right back up.

Compensation?

In a word, “no”. In regards to life, the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. You live in a city- accept the reality that you live there with thousands of other people…that you are not alone.

I do want to make one thing perfectly clear- Even though I fly a helicopter, I experience no pleasure when an aircraft flies over my house. If it is an EMS helicopter, then I understand that someone out there is probably dying and that their needs presently outweigh my own.

The people (or, rather, the well-to-do property owners) of San Francisco need to re-visit the meaning of life. The meaning of life is “to live”.

Great to have your perspective on this discussion.
Please add more. Perhaps you have some answers to some of the other questions you posed?

Why patients are flown?
Where they are flown from?
How often they are flown?
Who pays and who doesn’t? (any other info other than ability to pay? Who REALLY pays? HMO’s? Taxpayers? or…?)
How this might impact a neighborhood where a hospital helipad resides?

I’ll add some others…

Is SFGH the only option for a helipad in SF?

Are there other hospitals here that could accommodate a helipad?

What is the difference in time, if any, vs. flying to Stanford for most of your flights?

Out of all the flights you made in 2007, how many lives would have been saved by that time difference (if there is a time difference) between SF and Stanford?

Would you feel safer landing on a ship or on a helipad down by the piers?

For the 1000 or so people who live within a block of the helipad, would one expect the value of their home to be negatively impacted by the construction of a helipad and the subsequent arrival of regular air traffic? What about the impact to those within a 1/2 mile radius (or more) who will hear those aircraft as they approach and take-off from the helipad (admittedly quieter than older Huey’s)? Should they be compensated in some way if their home values take a hit as a result of a new helipad?

If your had $4 million to spend, would you save more lives by spending it on a helipad, or on other social services?

Yeah - I have a few more questions, but let’s start with those.
-
btw - I’m glad we have helicopter rescue teams. But I have yet to be convinced that they need to land at SFGH. Doesn’t matter if I’m on the gurney or someone else.

Wow, so many of you are so very misinformed in regards to why patients are flown, where they are flown from, how often they are flown, who pays and who doesn’t, and how this might impact a neighborhood where a hospital helipad resides.

Yes, hospitals primarily exist to make money. A hospital with helipad will probably make even more money.

At least 30% of the people that I fly are are nearly indigent- but patients are not screened prior to flight; if someone needs to get to a trauma center within that “golden hour”, then they will be flown, regardless of their ability to pay. The company that I work for does not pursue patients who cannot pay- the flight is simply written off. We are providing a service to communities, and do not discriminate when a life is hanging in the balance.

Choice helipad locations: highest level trauma center. High level rooftop helipad, where the noise footprint of an EMS helicopter will have the least impact on the community, and where approaches and departures can be flown with the least amount of obstructions.

Also- some of the modern helicopters are very quiet. The helicopters of yesteryear (read: Hueys) are no longer utilized because they are costly, noisy, large and impractically slow and inefficient. My helicopter is so quiet that it cannot be heard by the human ear when it is n the helipad, only one city block away. The newer technology is truly amazing.

I do think that it is rather selfish to live comfortably close to a trauma center, and at the same time feel the god-given right to deny others access to that facility…. sometime, when you are driving along PCH at night, south or north of San Francisco, and your car fly off the cliff, you will have a change of heart.

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