We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Most transports in Blaine County, whether by the fixed wing jet or the helicopter, are from one of the local airports. Smith said, "Typically we will land and someone with the local EMS organization will pick up the Mercy Flight crew and take us to the patient. We can help the local EMS folks prepare the patient for transport, that's part of our job." Dan Friede, who has worked with the Mercy Flight crews over the years, added, "The crews are very helpful and will direct and assist the local EMS crew to safely land the Mercy Flight and prepare the patient for transport."
The big "What if..."
Any discussion about possible emergency situations inevitably leads to a number "what if scenarios." After dealing with the specifics about how to call for a Mercy Flight, providing the necessary information for getting the aircraft to a patient for transport and describing the role of the local EMS to provide a safe landing zone, Flight Nurse Smith took questions.
The big what if was "What if we have a situation where we need Mercy Flight to come directly to the site of a life-threatening accident or illness?" Of special interest was any scenario in which an accident happened in some remote part of the county, south or north, where it would take longer to transport to a hospital than for Mercy Flight to come from Great Falls. Actually, local crews shared that some such scenarios had happened, though rarely.
Several members of the ambulance crew from the Big Flat area attended the training. During a break Adam Billmayer, with the Big Flat crew, said he believed there had been a couple of situations over the past 30 years where a Mercy Flight was directly dispatched to the north county area. Other Big Flat crew members remembered the two incidents-one was a bad vehicle wreck and the other a serious farm related trauma. In the south of the county, Dan Friede said there had been a couple of similar situations where it was quicker to have the Mercy Flight come directly to the accident rather than transport to Havre.
Smith had obviously heard the question from other crews as he had an answer pretty well formulated. He said "First, it's always okay to call our dispatch and put us on notice that you have a situation that might need us for transport." He explained that advance notice of a situation allowed the Mercy Flight crews to be better prepared if called. "In some cases," he added, "We'll launch for the problem area. We can always be called off if a local EMS crew assesses that we aren't needed for transport. There's no charge if we launch but are called off."
Calling for a Mercy Flight to a remote area poses some specific issues that Smith addressed. In a small "guide" that was distributed to every class participant, the opening page notes "Without exception, safety is Mercy Flight's top priority!" With that in mind, Smith listed specific actions that local EMS crews would need to take to make a Mercy Flight safe and successful away from an established landing area. Among several considerations would be weather, wind direction and speed, number of potential victims, landing zone requirements, lighting, etc. "Again," Smith said, "Our job is to help you do your job. We'll work with you to assure we all are safe and the patients are well taken care of."
The takeaway for the local EMS crews from the training seemed to be "there's a lot of things to be aware of but the Mercy Flight crews are there to help and make sure we are all safe." Despite all the "gee-whiz" technology, elegant equipment on the aircraft and highly trained flight personnel, it still comes down to communicating and making sure everyone is safe and understands what needs to happen for a safe and successful patient transport. That point seemed to be well understood at the end of the training.
