MARBLEHEAD, Mass. -- In the event of future terrorist attacks in America, do states have adequate medical helicopter services to transport the injured or ill for care? Currently, Massachusetts is the only state that can begin to answer that question.
A study published in the November/December issue of Air Medical Journal has implications for air medical emergency preparedness planning. Conducted by Garthe Associates under the auspices of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and the Bureau of Health Quality Management and Office of Emergency Medical Services, the study is the first such statewide, population- based utilization review of medical helicopter services in the country. Authors are Liz Garthe and Nick Mango (from Garthe Associates) and Brad Prenney (from MDPH, BHQM).
"Air medical transportation is the tip of the pyramid in emergency response systems. It's necessary for states to get a handle on this for emergency preparedness planning," says Liz Garthe, president of Garthe Associates, a Marblehead, Mass., firm that specializes in analyzing healthcare and crash injury data.
"The states are being told to prepare for terrorist attacks with 500 victims," Garthe notes. "To do this, state health officials need to know the key factors that affect patient outcome for air medical transports. This knowledge can allow states to leverage their key factor resources and dramatically expand transport capability with coordinated assistance from the National Guard, Coast Guard or military."
In the Air Medical Journal, Garthe provides a snapshot of medical helicopter use in Massachusetts during . Garthe emphasizes the importance of collecting information from the entire state. "Typically, studies of air medical use look at just one hospital or service. If you don't look at statewide data, how can you know the full capacity in the event of an emergency?" she says.
Overall, two air medical services, Boston MedFlight and UMass Memorial LifeFlight, provided emergency helicopter transportation to cover Massachusetts' 6 million residents and 8,300 square miles, including Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Each service used two helicopters, one as primary transport and one as back-up.
In , the services dispatched helicopters for 2,777 missions. The study showed a considerable difference in air medical transports between the five regions in the State used for emergency medical planning.
Garthe and her colleagues are completing an additional statewide study on air medical patient outcomes for victims of car crashes. The Air Medical Journal article is found at http://www2.us.elsevierhealth.com/scripts/om.dll/serve?action=searchDB&searc hDBfor=art&artType=abs&id=a48&nav=abs
Founded in , Garthe Associates has expertise in the collection, organization and analysis of state and national medical and crash injury data, and has served as a technical advisor to multiple state agencies. Research from the firm has been published in peer-reviewed, indexed national medical journals and presented at national and international conferences.
Source: PRNewswire
