TY - JOUR
T1 - Aborted air medical missions
T2 - A 4-year quality review of a Canadian province-wide air medical program
AU - Lawless, Jill
AU - Tallon, John M.
AU - Petrie, Dave
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - Introduction: EHS LifeFlight, the air medical transport program for the province of Nova Scotia, is a rotor-wing program with fixed-wing backup. It flies more than 600 missions per year, but a varying, significant number of other requested missions are aborted. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons for these cancellations and related pertinent descriptive data and evaluate the potential implications for patient care and quality service. Methods: This study is a descriptive, retrospective review of all aborted missions between July 1, 1997, and June 30, 2001. Data source was the EHS LifeFlight computer patient care record database. Results: A total of 2723 air medical requests were received during the study period. Of these, 1846 were completed flight missions (68%) and 876 were aborted missions (32%). Reasons for aborted missions included weather (30%), aircraft not required/not appropriate (27%), aborted by medical control physician (15%), aircraft out on another mission (11%), aircraft down for maintenance (9%), patient died before aircraft arrival (5%), no suitable landing zone (2%), and other (1%). Conclusions: A significant percentage of requested missions are aborted in this program. Reasons vary, but 20% of missions canceled could have been performed with the availability of a second dedicated aircraft. Overall, weather is the number 1 reason for aborting a mission.
AB - Introduction: EHS LifeFlight, the air medical transport program for the province of Nova Scotia, is a rotor-wing program with fixed-wing backup. It flies more than 600 missions per year, but a varying, significant number of other requested missions are aborted. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons for these cancellations and related pertinent descriptive data and evaluate the potential implications for patient care and quality service. Methods: This study is a descriptive, retrospective review of all aborted missions between July 1, 1997, and June 30, 2001. Data source was the EHS LifeFlight computer patient care record database. Results: A total of 2723 air medical requests were received during the study period. Of these, 1846 were completed flight missions (68%) and 876 were aborted missions (32%). Reasons for aborted missions included weather (30%), aircraft not required/not appropriate (27%), aborted by medical control physician (15%), aircraft out on another mission (11%), aircraft down for maintenance (9%), patient died before aircraft arrival (5%), no suitable landing zone (2%), and other (1%). Conclusions: A significant percentage of requested missions are aborted in this program. Reasons vary, but 20% of missions canceled could have been performed with the availability of a second dedicated aircraft. Overall, weather is the number 1 reason for aborting a mission.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amj.2004.12.006
DO - 10.1016/j.amj.2004.12.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 15741954
AN - SCOPUS:14644439239
SN - 1067-991X
VL - 24
SP - 79
EP - 82
JO - Air Medical Journal
JF - Air Medical Journal
IS - 2
ER -