Early Dispatch Improves Outcome

As part of an organized trauma system, air medical services cut the injury-to-operating-room time significantly. Medical helicopters, dispatched simultaneously with ground EMS, can give over 54% of the US population access to a full-service trauma center within 60 minutes that they otherwise would not have.

Rotor Wing (Helicopters) and Fixed Wing (Airplane) Air Ambulance Benefits

Helicopters are used for the transport of patients from the scene of an injury to a hospital, and for shorter flights between smaller hospitals and trauma centers or specialty hospitals.

Helicopters fly point-to-point, minimizing the time out of hospital, and avoiding the traffic delays experienced by ground ambulances.

Fixed wing air ambulances (airplanes) are used for transporting patients on longer interfacility flights. Fixed wing air ambulances can cover much more distance in less time than a ground ambulance.

Bringing patients home and/or to more sophisticated medical care from distant sites of illness or injury is one major use of a fixed-wing air medical service.