Helicopter emergency medical service patient transport safe at night?

Objective: Dutch helicopter emergency medical services are available 24/7. Working without daylight brings additional challenges, both in patient care and in-flight operation. We retrospectively evaluated the safety of this nighttime helicopter transportation of patients.

Methods: Our helicopter emergency medical service database was reviewed for all patients transported by helicopter during nighttime. Both interhospital transports and patients transported from the accident location to a hospital were included. The time traveled by helicopter was compared with the time that road transportation of these patients would have taken.

Results: In total, 513 patients were transported by helicopter. Of these patients, 72 were transported during nighttime (14%); the median age was 25.3 years (range, 1.1-73.9 years). The median flight time to the hospital was 16 minutes (range, 5-42 minutes). To travel by road, this would have taken a median of approximately 44 minutes (range, 23-100 minutes). When comparing these travel times, a significantly faster transport time by helicopter during nighttime was observed (P < .001). Three non-flight-specific incidents were noted.

Conclusion: We conclude that helicopter transportation of patients without daylight is safe and fast in a Dutch setting.