| As you may be aware, effective today (or apparently last night), PennSTAR 2 has relocated from West Chester to Atlantic City. Obviously, this changes the primary air ambulance responses to almost every fire box in our CAD. Primary air ambulance response will now be provided by LifeNet 6-1 (Christiana, DE), MedEvac 6 (Pottstown, PA), PennSTAR 4 (Reading, PA), or PennSTAR 1 (Blue Bell, PA). The CAD is being updated to reflect the removal of PennSTAR 2, and the previous 2nd and 3rd due aircraft will be moved up into 1st and 2nd due respectively. That leaves the 3rd due slot vacant. As of now, we do not have current information to accurately fill the 3rd due slot with the next closest air ambulance, so that slot will remain empty until further notice. In keeping with current procedure, any request after the CAD recommendations are exhausted will be by field provider/dispatcher discretion. If/when we receive updated information, we will consider filling the empty slot. Should you have a specific preference for the 3rd due slot in your primary response area in the interim, feel free to contact myself or Dave Filiaggi.
Leaving the 3rd due slot vacant should not have a negative effect on patient care. In review of my data, we have gone to 3rd due air ambulance in the CAD 11 times since 1/1/11, and in 8 of those cases, the 3rd due request was for standby only that did not result in a patient flight. Almost all of those cases were during inclement weather while helicopter "shopping" for an available aircraft. Only 3 times since 1/1/11 has there been more than one patient flown from the same scene, or multiple scenes requesting an air ambulance simultaneously.
Field personnel should consider ETA's when determining if air ambulance transport is appropriate. With no air ambulances based within the County now, ETA's may be longer than what personnel have become accustomed to, and it may be better in some scenarios (i.e. no entrapment) to transport by ground rather than wait on scene for an air ambulance.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Harry Moore, ALS Coordinator
Chester County Dept. of Emergency Services
601 Westtown Rd., Suite 012
West Chester, PA 19380
mailto: hemoore@chesco.org
610-344-5049 - phone
610-344-5063 - fax |
