Flight crews don't necessarily have more experience but they can depending upon the location of the call. The difference between ground and air is time. The ground crews generally have the patient ready to go by the time helicopter crews arrive on the scene. Flying in a straight line is always faster than driving down a curvy road in traffic. The difference in the lives being saved is the Emergency room with surgery, blood, etc. not the crews involved in the transportation. Now give me my 100,000 dollars that are wasted for something so obvious for this research.
Jimof MO2:05PM April 17, 2012
Ground medics always get there first. It is the GROUND medics who CALL for helicopter transport. You call 911, you get an ambulance on scene. The ground medic then decides if air transport is needed. Usually we have the patient already "packaged" with cervical spine precautions, IV's and EKG before the helicopter crew get there. Now consider this: we do NOT call for a medical helicopter if the patient is already deceased. So the fact that we have already deceased patients in our statistics already puts the study biased against us on the ground ambulance.
medicinmoof MO1:54PM April 17, 2012
And we spent money find this out!! Anecdotal common sense is sometimes prima facie without spending taxpayer money! What a waste.
otherof WA1:36PM April 17, 2012
Medics and nurses on helicopters have more experience which I am sure is the reason for the better outcome as well.
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Jim of MO 2:05PM April 17, 2012
medicinmo of MO 1:54PM April 17, 2012
other of WA 1:36PM April 17, 2012
Matthew Olesin of GA 1:10PM April 17, 2012