Trauma centers

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beantown native

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OK... Where I live on the suncoast of Florida, HCA opened 2 trauma centers, or added level 2 trauma to their hospitals. My question is do they have to have their own flight program within a certain amount of time after inception of the program ? I have heard they have 2 years to establish one. Presently they are being served by Bayflight in ST.Pete, and Aeromed in Tampa. Also rumored is that Bayflight is decreasing their aircraft by 2... Any help ? Any info ?
 
Florida requires trauma centers to have their own flight program? Odd


I have 3 adult level 1, 3 adult level 2, a child level 1 and a child level 2, all within a short drive of me, and the childrens hospitals are the only 2 with specialty flight programs in house...none of the others have their own flight program. It'd make no sense to.
 
Its a question.... not a statement. I am asking IS it a requirement?
 
Really? U must pride yourself on being an ***. Good job. Looked there searched the FL dept of health site too... but thanks... :wub::D
 
Why would they be required to have an in-house flight program? Not being a **** just wondering what set this idea in motion.

To my knowledge they are not required to. Our level 2 TC does not have an in-house service. Our HEMS sister company provides HEMS to the area along with CALSTAR and Mountain LifeFlight.

I've never seen anything from the American College of Surgeons stating TCs have to have a flight program.
 
Thanks. I am asking simply to see if it is true or not. I was told by alot of ER nurses that they had to within 2 years.Didnt make sense either... I have searched all over and come up with nothing, so I figured maybe sombody here may know. either... But the other local air transport is cutting down 2 helicopters, which will hurt the area. So there may be some truth to it too.Again, thanks
 
I thought I remember reading that the ACS recommended that trauma centers have designated helicopter landing areas, but I can't find that source. I think it was reference to in Lifeflight of Maine's initiative to fund every hospital in Maine getting a lighted helipad.

The ACS certainly does not require a dedicated flight team, heck none of the hospitals in Boston have one, they share three helicopters (which is an excellent idea, by the way).
 
You must mean Boston Med flight.. lol, yes they are an awesome group with ground transport also. I Know Umass has 1 and and lifestar in ct. Is Medflight run by a Hospital ?
 
beantown native said:
Thanks. I am asking simply to see if it is true or not. I was told by alot of ER nurses that they had to within 2 years.Didnt make sense either... I have searched all over and come up with nothing, so I figured maybe sombody here may know. either... But the other local air transport is cutting down 2 helicopters, which will hurt the area. So there may be some truth to it too.Again, thanks
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St Joseph's is a level 2 I believe and I don't think they have their own flight program. I would think they use aeromed or bayflight.

Have a link mentioning Bayflight cutting back? I'm not at a trauma center but use Bayflight a lot for our neurosurg cases that get flown in.
 
beantown native said:
Really? U must pride yourself on being an ***. Good job. Looked there searched the FL dept of health site too... but thanks... :wub::D
Click to expand...

You need to work on your google skills.

Step 1 - Searched for "Florida level 2 trauma designation hospital requirements", which got me this site, which gave me the Florida statute number that applies to trauma centers, along with links to all of the relevant statutes. Scroll down and click on the link for DOH pamphlet number 150-9, which is under the header "Trauma center standards".

For the record, the only thing it mentions about HEMS is that the hospital must have a designated landing site withing reasonable proximity to the resuscitation area along with a bunch of paperwork filed so it is all legal.
 
FLdoc2011 said:
St Joseph's is a level 2 I believe and I don't think they have their own flight program. I would think they use aeromed or bayflight.

Have a link mentioning Bayflight cutting back? I'm not at a trauma center but use Bayflight a lot for our neurosurg cases that get flown in.
Click to expand...

No, no link.... just the talk around town.. Also talking that aeromed was gonna increase.. so, I dont know.
 
Aidey, Yes, I found this out as well, and I also found it just a helipad was required. Just trying to confirm whether or not they were required to have their own air transport or if they could just use another's .See, the trauma ctrs around here are in a legal battle. Bayfront Medical Ctr/All Childrens was the one that always got the call, and everyone went there. Now HCA opened trauma ctrs on each side of them, and Bayfront has lost 70% of the traumas they had. As a result, the word is, they are cutting 2 of the 4 helicopters. The question remains, does HCA have to have an air transport or do they simply transport by ground from everywhere... I cant find anything about that...
 
beantown native said:
You must mean Boston Med flight.. lol, yes they are an awesome group with ground transport also. I Know Umass has 1 and and lifestar in ct. Is Medflight run by a Hospital ?
Click to expand...

No BMF is not run by any one hospital, hence the hospitals "sharing" helicopters." The unique thing about BMF is that it is independent entity that is funded by MGH, Beth Israel, Tufts NEMC, Brigham and Womens, and Childrens. For those not in the area, these hospitals operate in different networks still all pay equally for BMF to operate.

They are part of the Northeast Air Alliance which is serves a sort of "mutual-aid" group for New England medical air transport. NEAA includes BMF, University of Massachusetts Lifeflight, Lifestar in CT, Dartmouth-Hitchcocks DHART in NH, Maine Lifeflight, and Lifenet in NY. Unlike the rest of the country, we do not have an abundance of air resources which hopefully means that they are used a bit more properly.
 
beantown native said:
The question remains, does HCA have to have an air transport or do they simply transport by ground from everywhere... I cant find anything about that...
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No they don't. if aeromedical transport is needed a private company would do the transport. All they have to have is a landing pad...

Look at it this way, do hospitals have to have an ambulance service to receive EMS patients? No, private companies, FDs and third services provide that service just like private HEMS companies provide aeromedical transport.

Just because a flight program is hospital based doesn't mean they only transport to their hospital. That would be a JCAHO violation if they bypassed a closer capable trauma facility to transport to their home hospital. Edit: This is my understanding of it. I don't have a direct link to back this but see below to understand why I say this.

If we have a burn patient that also meets trauma criteria we have to jump through hoops to bypass our local level 2 to fly them to the burn center in Davis. Either having to transport by ground to the TC and have the trauma doc meet us outside to approve the patient to bypass their facility or if we are in an outlying area the flight crew has to make contact with the TC and get approval to bypass them from the doc via radio or telephone.
 
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Linuss said:
Florida requires trauma centers to have their own flight program? Odd


I have 3 adult level 1, 3 adult level 2, a child level 1 and a child level 2, all within a short drive of me, and the childrens hospitals are the only 2 with specialty flight programs in house...none of the others have their own flight program. It'd make no sense to.
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im not 100% sure about requiring it but i dont think so...

Jackson Memorial Hospital- Level 1 pts are flown in Miami Dade Fire Rescues Air Rescue .

Broward General(level 1) & Memorial Regional(Hollywood)(level 1) are flown in by MDFR or BSO(Broward Sheriffs)

but those were 911/scene responses no IFT's or anything like that..

Miami Childrens Hospital had their own heli to fly sick kiddos.

I know ORMC has their own in house flight program, Air Care. & if im not mistaken FireStar was flying around in orange county too but idk what happened to them.
 
beantown native said:
Aidey, Yes, I found this out as well, and I also found it just a helipad was required. Just trying to confirm whether or not they were required to have their own air transport or if they could just use another's .See, the trauma ctrs around here are in a legal battle. Bayfront Medical Ctr/All Childrens was the one that always got the call, and everyone went there. Now HCA opened trauma ctrs on each side of them, and Bayfront has lost 70% of the traumas they had. As a result, the word is, they are cutting 2 of the 4 helicopters. The question remains, does HCA have to have an air transport or do they simply transport by ground from everywhere... I cant find anything about that...
Click to expand...

NO! They do not! The links I posted covered the official FL state laws on the topic and as I said, they don't say anything about hospitals having their own HEMS. Unless there is an addendum somewhere that is not clearly listed the answer is no. What information is going to be more convincing than the state statues directly off the DOH website?
 
Considering the start-up cost involved in HEMS and HCA being a for-profit entity....I would wager the nurses are full of horse puckey.

I'm actually shocked HCA is in the trauma business period (although I'd sure love to have their north Texas CCT business...)
 
I work in LA County and we fly most of our trauma patients to UCLA cuz our transport times to the closest trauma centers are >25 min. Unless its a traumatic full arrest or the patient is combative, they're going on a helicopter.
 
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