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Medic Flight Says Police Helicopters Are Stealing Emergency Calls for Publicity
Mercy Flight Central provides helicopter transport for emergency medical care from their base in Marcellus for the central region of New York State, the Finger Lakes and Rochester. (Left to right:) Pilot Bob Hansen stands by as flight nurse Lou Varre and
The Post-Standard via YellowBrix
November 02, 2009
Syracuse, NY — Three rescue helicopters that serve Central New York are embroiled in an air war.
Mercy Flight Central, a private service with a helicopter on standby in Marcellus, claims Onondaga County’s Air One helicopter and the state police helicopter in the area are jumping calls — responding to medical emergencies before Mercy Flight has a chance to go — for emergency transports and putting patients in danger.
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office and state police say they never jump calls and that the closest available helicopter should respond. The key, they say, is who can get the patient to an emergency room quickest.
Mercy Flight is suing the sheriff’s office and federal government, claiming the Federal Aviation Administration is not enforcing a law that gives medical helicopters first dibs.
The dispute highlights a drama behind the dramatic transports of trauma patients to emergency rooms. Three agencies have expensive helicopters and, for many reasons, want to stay in the air ambulance business.
All have big investments. Mercy Flight’s helicopter cost $5 million. Onondaga County’s cost $2.3 million. The state police’s cost $6.2 million.
While taxpayers underwrite each run of the police copters, Mercy Flight charges an insurance company $8,500 for a typical run, its officials say.
Kent Johnson, president of the National EMS Pilots Association, said he’s unaware of a similar dispute elsewhere in the country.
“I don’t think normally police are competing with EMS helicopters in that regard,” Johnson said. In his area of Utah, dispatchers use a seven-minute rule: If the EMS helicopter will take no longer than seven minutes more than the police helicopter to arrive, the EMS should go, Johnson said.
Mercy Flight Central pilot Bob Hansen checks controls on the helicopter.
Mercy Flight officials say their crews can do procedures that neither Onondaga County’s Air One helicopter nor the local state police rescue helicopter can. They can secure a patient’s airway, administer medication to calm a combative patient and hook a patient to a ventilator and IV pump on board.
