Well, I might as well go thru and dissect some of the article’s BS.
1. Pilot’s aren’t pressured to take flights. If we were, we’d sue the company and own it. This ain’t your daddy’s 1980s HEMS. If anything, I’d get fired if I took a flight in questionable weather vs not accepting one.
2. Oh, and to the author, it’s not called HEMS anymore. The FAA doesn’t like what the “E” stands for.
3. Comparing US HAA accidents to UK? That’s a joke right? We probably have more HAA bases just in California than all of the UK.
4. Yep, twin engine is safer than single. No denying that. But...wait for it, it ain’t because of engine failure.
5. To the nurse (Cline) If your pilot landed in 0 vis then report them and stop spreading false rumors about dangerous pilots . And if you’re that worried about “risking your life” on a flight, find something else to do. Although I’m sure you’re not going to go back to the grind of an ER hospital nurse.
6. This “modest” amount of $5,998 Medicare reimbursement for a flight is chump change. A couple of 6 inch parts on our aircraft that I won’t disclose cost almost that amount. An ECU box alone costs more than most people’s planes on POA. Estimates to break even on a patient flight are around $10K. Medicare ain’t gonna cover it.
7. Why is the flight charged at $50K? Well, I won’t go into the company management $$$ trail outside of an operational perspective but as stated above, Insurance pays only a small percentage. How about indigent care? We eat all of those costs. $98 million profit to AMC? Well then why have they closed 30 bases alone this year and more on the way? Oh, and MOST companies don’t go putting liens on people’s houses who can’t pay either. They work with the patient and setup a payment plan that amounts to basically peanuts a month. The author cherry picked a couple of examples for effect. Don’t even mention the thousands around the country that have a flight program and paid nothing out of pocket. Don’t even mention the programs that provide free air medical transport for their entire county either.
8. Jeez, you went and put two important graphs up. How about highlighting the fact that we’ve whittled down that atrocious 1980s accident rate to one that’s comparable to any other Part 135 operation today. Training, equipment upgrades and safety culture.
9. Helicopter shopping? Yeah, if a base is reporting WOXOF (old school) but the hospital is 10 miles away in the clear, I don’t know, maybe call another helicopter that’s not at that particular base??? That’s not helicopter shopping. That’s thinking outside the box, using good judgment and utilizing all your resources available. And to blame the Ohio “Survival Flight” crash on helicopter shopping when we have no idea right now why they crashed is completely inappropriate. Did you even look at the nearest AWOS to the accident site? Oh yeah, there’s already “protocols” in place for turn downs. We call it FAR 135.617.
10. 500-600 helicopters ain’t gonna cut it. Why? Because our rural hospitals are closing at an alarming rate and over 20 % right now (including my own) are on the brink of closure. That means more patients due to distance alone will have to be transported by helo. If anything, they can’t meet the demand of rural hospitals because the local HAA provider is already out on a flight for another hospital. 1,000 helicopters is a good number.
Another poorly written example of sensationalized journalism.
