Aeromedical service: how does it actually contribute to the mission?

Background: Aeromedical services are important but poorly understood elements of many health systems. The purpose of this study is to describe the value of aeromedical transportation to our health system.

Methods: We profiled the top 10 admitting services for our Survival Flight (SF) aeromedical patients, the top 10 inpatient diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) for SF patients, SF's contribution to the top 10 revenue DRGs, SF revenue by payer, downstream revenue of fiscal year (FY) 1997 SF patients, FY01 downstream revenue of SF patients transported during the previous 5 years, and both intensive care unit stay and overall length of stay of SF patients.

Results: SF brought 1,340 patients to the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) in FY01. The top 10 admitting services for SF patients derived 11% of their patients and 22% of their revenues from SF. SF accounted for 11% of patients but 19% of revenue in the 10 top DRGs. The mean SF initial inpatient revenue was 46,279 US dollars, excluding professional fees. Measured downstream clinical activity generated incremental revenues amounting to 43% of the initial inpatient revenue. Hospital-wide, SF patients contributed 3% of admissions, 7% of inpatient days, 22% of intensive care unit days, 11% of UMHS revenues, and 15% of inpatient UMHS revenues.

Conclusion: Survival Flight is critically important to UMHS research, patient care, and educational missions. Moreover, the aeromedical service provides large and relatively stable revenue streams to the health system.