Patients are flown by fixed wing for many different reasons. The fixed wing environment differs from the rotor wing environment primarily in that fixed wing travels farther, faster and higher.
Fixed Wing aircraft were the first aircraft used in medEvac transport. A medical section of the Army Air Corps was created as early as June 1, 1925 using converted DeHaviland aircraft. Helicopters did not see use as medical transports until 1944.
The weather minimums for safe flight operations are found within the Federal Aviation Regulations. AAMS recommends that medEvac services, regardless of AAMS membership, follow the CAMTS recommended standards of operation.
"IFR" stands for "Instrument Flight Rules." It refers to a set of rules governing the conduct of flight under weather conditions where navigation by Visual Flight Rules (VFR) is no longer reliable.
The debate among users continues with this issue. Some pilots and passengers have always believed two is better than one. On certain levels this is still true today. Anyone flying 100 miles offshore, or over mountainous terrain at night feels better knowing that there are two engines working for him or her.
The “Golden Hour” concept provides that along the route to the surgeon’s knife in that first hour, a patient should benefit from an organized EMS system which provides increasingly advanced care.
The scarcity of cardiac intervention centers, particularly outside of urban areas, suggest a role, supported by studies to date, for HEMS in quickly transporting patients, even patients whose hearts have stopped and been restarted, from remote hospitals to these centers.
Trauma Transport Protocols (TTP) describe the procedures used by the emergency medical services prehospital provider for dispatch of vehicles, assessment of the extent and...
