New research confirms that for patients it is cooler to arrive at hospital by air ambulance

Special Reporting by Chris F

As debate continues about the benefit of air ambulance transport for trauma patients, research published in the International Journal of Ambulance Science this week confirms that for patients, it is much cooler to arrive at hospital by air ambulance than by traditional land ambulance.

Having been unable to show a patient outcome improvement from air ambulance transport, Dr. Nathanson and his colleagues at the South Huron Institute of Technology sought to find other potential benefits. Their study asked patients transported to their Level I trauma center during summer 2013 to rate the coolness of their transport vehicle. Out of 320 patients brought to their hospital after trauma, 78 were included in the study after 242 had to be excluded for being unable to remember their trip to hospital. Overall, the patients transported by helicopter rated the coolness of their trip to hospital at four times that of the group transported by land ambulance.

Dr. Nathanson said that even he was surprised by this result, “We did expect that patients might respond positively to having what for most of them is their first ride in a helicopter, but we did not realize just how much they would appreciate the flight.” He also pointed out that this difference was seen irrespective of age, transport time, or injury severity score. There was a non-statistically significant trend towards a lower appreciation of the coolness of air ambulance transport patients with a lower GCS.

This study is significant because it is the first to definitively prove a benefit of air ambulance transport. Knowing empirically now that despite being a more expensive and dangerous way to get to the hospital, it is far more cool for patients has the potential to revolutionize prehospital care. This is the type of high quality evidence that is likely to be first to be implemented as the paramedic profession finally starts thinking about someday potentially beginning a shift to evidence-based practice.

In their paper the authors describe a future where all patients in developed countries will be transported to hospital by helicopter. They predict that by 2025 most hospitals in North America will have converted their land ambulance entrances to additional helipads. This future is contested by other groups such as the American Association of Land Ambulance Paramedics. In a written statement, they said that land ambulance transport is still generally considered to be a novelty and that the vast majority of trauma patients will continue to arrive by land ambulance. They also point out that this study only examined patient perspectives and that those observing the patient transport would surely appreciate the emergency lights that are currently only seen on land ambulances.