- Email: [email protected]
Helicopter shopping
Ask the CAMTS
Eileen Frazer, RN, CMTE
Helicopter Shopping In 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) held a helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) Weather Summit, co-sponsored by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Representatives from several national air medical organizations and private companies were invited to discuss the major issues in emergency medical services (EMS) that involve weather: from weather reporting to FAA regulations to common HEMS practices. One of the practices that the FAA was concerned about was helicopter shopping. The FAA defines helicopter shopping as “the practice of calling, in sequence, various operators until an operator agrees to take a flight assignment, without sharing with subsequent operators the reasons the flight was declined by previously called operators.” Other organizations such as the Air Medical Safety Advisory Council were also concerned about helicopter shopping and published guidelines. In 2006, the National Association of State EMS Officials issued a resolution calling on state EMS officials to develop, with air medical stakeholders, standard guidelines to assure appropriate disclosure regarding weather and safety. The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services (CAMTS) requires accredited programs to develop polices that discourage shopping by first responders and other requesting agents that specifically address how the program interfaces with other air medical services in the same coverage area to alert them of a weather turn-down. In 2007, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated air ambulance operations and published the report entitled “Improved Data Collection Needed for Effective Oversight of Air Ambulance Industry,” dated February 2007. In this report, the GAO states, “Helicopter shopping: This practice can lead to an unsafe condition in which an operator initiates a flight that may have been declined if it had been aware of all the facts surrounding the assignment. For example, in July 2004, a medical helicopter collided with tress shortly after takeoff, killing the pilot, flight nurse, flight paramedic, and patient. Three other ambulance operators had previously turned down this same flight, including one who attempted it but was forced to return due to fog. The pilot, during the accident, however, was not informed by emergency medical service dispatchers that other pilots had declined the flight due to weather conditions. According to NTSB, inadequate dispatch information contributed to the accident.” Air medical programs in several states have developed policies to discourage helicopter shopping and reduce the associated risks, but education of prehospital and emergency 60
department (ED) personnel is a key factor. As a result of the HEMS Weather Summit in 2006, a small committee came together to produce an education video that addresses the issue of helicopter shopping. This committee was made up of representatives from the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS), the American College of Emergency Physicians, CAMTS, the Emergency Nurses Association, the International Association of Flight Paramedics, the National Association of Air Medical Communication Specialists, and the National Emergency Medical Services Pilots Association. With a grant from the Foundation for Air Medical Research (FARE), the committee created a 15-minute production entitled “Hazards of Helicopter Shopping.” The purpose of the video is to educate prehospital and ED personnel about the process of checking weather before a request can be accepted and how a requesting agent should communicate with helicopter services to avoid the hazards of helicopter shopping and avoid transport delays for the patient. This is a nonprofit project. CAMTS and Flight For Life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are helping to fund distribution costs so that there is no charge and the video can be widely distributed electronically to air medical services, organizations, and individuals who wish to use it as a teaching tool for their referral base. This education presentation can be viewed on the AAMS website as a Vision Zero initiative. The video also can be viewed on the CAMTS website and is available to download from www.FAASafety.gov so that it can be distributed to requesting agencies. Eileen Frazer, RN, CMTE, is the CAMTS executive director. She can be reached at [email protected] or (864) 287-4177. 1067-991X/$34.00 Copyright 2008 by Air Medical Journal Associates doi: 10.1016/j.amj.2007.12.003
Air Medical Journal 27:2
Eileen Frazer, RN, CMTE
Helicopter Shopping In 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) held a helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) Weather Summit, co-sponsored by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Representatives from several national air medical organizations and private companies were invited to discuss the major issues in emergency medical services (EMS) that involve weather: from weather reporting to FAA regulations to common HEMS practices. One of the practices that the FAA was concerned about was helicopter shopping. The FAA defines helicopter shopping as “the practice of calling, in sequence, various operators until an operator agrees to take a flight assignment, without sharing with subsequent operators the reasons the flight was declined by previously called operators.” Other organizations such as the Air Medical Safety Advisory Council were also concerned about helicopter shopping and published guidelines. In 2006, the National Association of State EMS Officials issued a resolution calling on state EMS officials to develop, with air medical stakeholders, standard guidelines to assure appropriate disclosure regarding weather and safety. The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services (CAMTS) requires accredited programs to develop polices that discourage shopping by first responders and other requesting agents that specifically address how the program interfaces with other air medical services in the same coverage area to alert them of a weather turn-down. In 2007, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated air ambulance operations and published the report entitled “Improved Data Collection Needed for Effective Oversight of Air Ambulance Industry,” dated February 2007. In this report, the GAO states, “Helicopter shopping: This practice can lead to an unsafe condition in which an operator initiates a flight that may have been declined if it had been aware of all the facts surrounding the assignment. For example, in July 2004, a medical helicopter collided with tress shortly after takeoff, killing the pilot, flight nurse, flight paramedic, and patient. Three other ambulance operators had previously turned down this same flight, including one who attempted it but was forced to return due to fog. The pilot, during the accident, however, was not informed by emergency medical service dispatchers that other pilots had declined the flight due to weather conditions. According to NTSB, inadequate dispatch information contributed to the accident.” Air medical programs in several states have developed policies to discourage helicopter shopping and reduce the associated risks, but education of prehospital and emergency 60
department (ED) personnel is a key factor. As a result of the HEMS Weather Summit in 2006, a small committee came together to produce an education video that addresses the issue of helicopter shopping. This committee was made up of representatives from the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS), the American College of Emergency Physicians, CAMTS, the Emergency Nurses Association, the International Association of Flight Paramedics, the National Association of Air Medical Communication Specialists, and the National Emergency Medical Services Pilots Association. With a grant from the Foundation for Air Medical Research (FARE), the committee created a 15-minute production entitled “Hazards of Helicopter Shopping.” The purpose of the video is to educate prehospital and ED personnel about the process of checking weather before a request can be accepted and how a requesting agent should communicate with helicopter services to avoid the hazards of helicopter shopping and avoid transport delays for the patient. This is a nonprofit project. CAMTS and Flight For Life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are helping to fund distribution costs so that there is no charge and the video can be widely distributed electronically to air medical services, organizations, and individuals who wish to use it as a teaching tool for their referral base. This education presentation can be viewed on the AAMS website as a Vision Zero initiative. The video also can be viewed on the CAMTS website and is available to download from www.FAASafety.gov so that it can be distributed to requesting agencies. Eileen Frazer, RN, CMTE, is the CAMTS executive director. She can be reached at [email protected] or (864) 287-4177. 1067-991X/$34.00 Copyright 2008 by Air Medical Journal Associates doi: 10.1016/j.amj.2007.12.003
Air Medical Journal 27:2