Our Say: Medevac service due for cutbacks, legislative scrutiny

Published 09/07/08

After years of stubborn refusal to do so, the state police medevac unit has cut back on the use of its helicopters, which suggests that they were being overused in flying accident victims to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Officials announced last week that the service will be transporting fewer patients. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, patients will be taken by ambulance to the nearest trauma center if that will take no more than 30 minutes. In addition, paramedics will not be automatically flying patients who have been involved in roll-over accidents, high-speed chases and other situations that...

This story has expired!
You can purchase the full text in our news archives.

YOUR COMMENTS

RULES OF PARTICIPATION

If you encounter other problems, please email ewiffin@capitalgazette.com and include your name, username, and any errors or messages that are displayed. The more information you can provide, the better able we will be to assist you.

In order to post or vote on a comment, you must be signed in with a hometownannapolis account.

Take a look at a summary of Commenting Guidelines.

Report Abuse or Vote In order to allow the user community the ability to collectively rank the value of comments posted on the Capital Gazette websites we have implemented a thumbs-up/down system. All logged-in users may participate by voting up/down each comment. If others vote on your comment, your individual score will go up/down depending on the votes. Initially, everyone starts with a score of zero, and must earn credits to have significant voting weight. Individuals with higher scores will have more voting weight. 0

well said - 2008-09-09 11:01:59

Well said in all the previous comments. Every precaution should be taken when a life (or limb) is at stake. Lets spend the money on the continued excellent service, not spending the $$ on a study to see how much the service is needed.

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

Brian N. - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Neutral

MSP - 2008-09-08 15:16:19

That many patients are released in 48 hours or less is not surprising. Those are patients who experienced some sort of traumatic injury that has been known to have a high liklihood of internal comlications that could kill them quickly. As a provider in the field, I can perform many life saving techniques, but I can NOT do surgery. Our local facilities do not have the resources to handle a patient with internal injuries from trauma. And with the clock ticking on these people lives the second the injury occurs, the risk of sending them to a local ER often outweighs the benefit of flying them to definitive care.

While there is often debate about the "Golden Hour", most agree that time is crucial. The golden hour dictates that someone with severe injuries has an hour from the time of injury to definitive (surgery at a TRAUMA center) care or their chance of survival decreases dramatically. What this means is that a seemingly stable patient with significant mechanism of injury may be out of luck by the time he shows the signs and symptoms of his true internal injuries.

How many of you have been to the ER lately? While I won't place the blame on the hospitals themselves, unless you have serious life threatening signs when you arrive, you may be waiting HOURS for tests. On the other hand, a patient flown to Shock Trauma is seen immediately by a SWARM of physicians and surgeons.

My point is many patients are flown as a precaution to avoid delays in surgical care. If we eliminate the option of precautionary transports, we will have many more deaths from the patients who did not have serious symptoms, but did sustain massive injury. Also, don't forget it is not always about life, but also limb.

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

D. F - Baltimore, MD - Karma: Bad

?????? - 2008-09-08 00:47:42

Granted, there is no excuse for sloppy record keeping. However, to fault MSP for responding to calls for service from ground EMS units is ridiculous. Are they supposed to, from the hanger, decide if ground units called for an "appropriate" reason? No. Ground units have to quickly assess a patient and determine the level of care required, the most appropriate facility to transport to, and finally how to get there. Of all the things to nickel and dime - this ain't it. BTW, I thought part of our MVA fees were dedicated to fund this program as opposed to money from the general fund? If they cut the helo budget are our MVA fees going to decrease? I doubt it.

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

Jeffrey O. - Pasadena, MD - Karma: Neutral

MSP Air Rescue - 2008-09-07 18:42:01

Carrying the critically injured/ill is not the medivac team's only purpose. Its detractors ignore the multitude of other Aviation program missions. Apparently someone wants to divert the special taxes collected for the MSP program to some other area of less import. Wake up, Marylanders! Your life or that of someone you love may be at stake!

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

Walter B. - Lakewood, CO - Karma: Bad