The journal of trauma and acute care surgery
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J Trauma Acute Care Surg · Feb 2016
Helicopter interfacility transport of pediatric trauma patients: Are we overusing a costly resource?
Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) provide an important service to decrease interfacility transport times compared with ground ambulances. Although transport via HEMS is typically faster, the decreased transportation time comes at the expense of increased risks to the patient and flight crew and higher costs. Therefore, it is important to balance the immediate patient needs with the risk and expense of HEMS transport. Our objective was to determine how frequently pediatric patients who are interfacility transported to a Level 1 pediatric trauma center (PTC) receive a time-sensitive intervention. ⋯ Epidemiologic study, level V.