The Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) provides an aeromedical retrieval service to remote and rural communities in Scotland. They examined 300 retrievals over a five year period and showed a correlation between amount of critical care interventions required and total time on scene (defined as the total length of time between the aircraft landing and taking off from the scene, this includes access to patient, transfer to the helicopter and packaging for flight departure). Median scene time for both medical and trauma patients was 60 minutes.
The authors remind us that critical care secondary retrieval from rural healthcare facilities has many similarities to prehospital care (primary retrieval), and therefore consideration of scene times is of interest.
On-scene times and critical care interventions for an aeromedical retrieval service
Emerg Med J. 2010 Aug 19. [Epub ahead of print]