There is a lot of contradictory information surrounding the hospital helipad. Here's what our team's research has determined to be true:

Question: The SF General Hospital claims that a helipad is required to ensure continued Level I Trauma Center status and Level I funding. Is that true?

FACT: This is not true.

There is no State of California regulation or American College of Surgeons [ACS] standard requiring a medical helipad for a hospital to be designated or verified as a trauma center. The ACS is the verifying body for trauma centers in the United States and the State of California regulates acute care hospitals, trauma centers, trauma systems and emergency medical services throughout the State.

None of New York City's hospitals have helipads. All helicopter patient transfers fly into to the East 34th Street Heliport and are then transported by ambulance to various city hospitals, similar to the way we use the SFO airport for medical helicopter transfers.

Question: The SF General Hospital claims that it needs more trauma cases to ensure continued Level I Trauma Center status and Level I funding. Is that true?

FACT: This is not true. Level I Trauma Centers must have at least 1200 trauma case admissions per year.  Last year SFGH had 1500 trauma admissions.  There is no shortage of local San Francisco trauma patients.

Question: I've heard that a helipad will save children's lives, by faster transfer to Oakland Children's Hospital.  Is that true?

FACT: This is not an issue, for several reasons:

• Helicopters would not be housed at SF General's helipad, they would be dispatched from the Concord heliport.  It would take the Concord-based helicopters 20-28 minutes to arrive at SF General Hospital: (5-10 minutes to assemble the crew and take off, 15-18 minutes air travel time, depending on wind conditions) Once at SFGH, the loading process and liftoff takes another 5-8 minutes, finally, the flight time to Oakland Children's Hospital is approximately 10 minutes. Total time elasped: 35- 46 minutes, twice as long as ground ambulance transfer requires.

• SF General is now a fully certified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Care Center.  There is no longer any need to transfer children. 

• In a few years, UCSF's Mission Bay Pediatric Hospital, which is just one mile east of SFGH, will be treating children for trauma as well as other emergencies. 

Question:  Don’t we need a helipad in San Francisco in case there's a natural or man-made disaster? 

FACT: There are already many existing (but un-used) helipads in San Francisco, see the map at San Francisco helipads.  Additionally, there are 29 Emergency Medical Services helicopter-landing sites at various SF parks, parking lots, playgrounds and intersections.  These are listed in the San Francisco EMS Agency Manual.