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San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH)
wants to build a helipad on the Main Building's roof. SFGH predicts 3
landings and 3 departures a day. That's 6 helicopter events per
24-hour day; 40% of these flights will occur between 11pm and 7 am.
SF
patients would not use the helipad
Helicopters would not be housed at SF General's helipad; they would be kept at
the Concord heliport. When 911 calls for a helicopter, it takes 5-10 minutes
to assemble the crew, warm-up engines, take off from Concord; then there's 15-18
minutes air-travel time to San Francisco. So it would take about 30 minutes
for a helicopter to
arrive at any SF trauma site. Ground ambulance, with average response time under 8 minutes,
will continue to provide the best service to San Francisco residents in need of emergency transport.
WHAT PATIENTS WOULD BENEFIT FROM THE HELIPAD?
According to the Hospital, the proposed SFGH helipad would primarily
be used as a medical transportation hub for
stabilized patients,
transferring from other California county trauma centers to SFGH and to other San
Francisco hospitals. Many of these patients currently use the SFO airport
and should continue to do so.
helipad at SF General would
not save additional lives.
Only 8% of the predicted 700
flights each year would be rescues from an injury site, most from Bay
Area recreational sites or highways.
The 53 predicted rescues per year are now flown
to other Bay Area
hospitals with helipads (click map below). In fact, these other
Bay Area Trauma Centers
with helipads,
are often
closer to the rescue scene, and ALL are far less crowded
than SFGH.

San Francisco
General, our ONLY County Hospital, is FULL
SFGH is San
Francisco's
only Trauma Center and the only SF County Hospital. But due to over-crowding, it's on full
ambulance diversion 20 % of the time. When local residents
(whose tax dollars support SF General), have a medical emergency, there is
a 1-in-5 chance that SFGH will be too full to treat them; they then
go to St. Luke's, but that emergency room will be closing in 2009.
WHY does SFGH want PATIENTS FROM OTHER COUNTIES?
Because helicopter transport is so
expensive,
($20,000
per helicopter flight), it is only available to insured or
high-income patients. SFGH hopes to attract at least 400 such patients.
These patients, who come from California counties as far
away as Lake Tahoe, or the Oregon border, currently fly to Trauma Centers
in Palo Alto, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland. If these insured
patients came to SFGH, their insurance would pay for their treatment in our hospital.
The SFGH Feasibility Study cheered this "increased downstream revenue". as would
we all, if there were empty beds to fill at our hospital. But with a 20%
diversion rate, a flood of additional out-of-county patients would further
reduce hospital care local residents.
SERVING
OTHER COUNTIES is beyond the SFGH mission
SFGH's mission,
is to serve SF's 1.5 million residents and visitors, particularly low-income and
uninsured residents, who must pay for emergency service if treated at any other
hospital. SFGH should NOT rely upon revenue from weathy patients from
surrounding counties, at the cost of reduced emergency services to all San Franciscans.
-------------------------------
In the News: Read the Wall Street Journal article on 'Emergency Medical Helicopters Overuse'.
"Unfortunately, the city of San
Francisco has had a history of tragedy in and around
the use of helicopters"
Supervisor
Tom Ammiano
following a 2nd fatal Police helicopter crash
1/14/2000
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EMS Helicopter crash
rate
is highest in aviation industry
The rate of FATAL CRASHES
in helicopter Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
operations is higher than the rate for all other
categories of aviation.
http://www.alea.org/public/safety/files/2006_EMS_Accident_Study.pdf
Recent Helicopter Crashes:
Listed below: just
U.S.
FATAL
or
Medical Helicopter
crashes in 2008
To date in 2008: 11 Medical Helicopters crash,
killing 28.

Helicopter crashes on hospital in Grand
Rapids, see 5/29 story below.
*Sept. 28, 2008,
District Heights, MD
-
Medical helicopter
crashes,
4 killed
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Helicopter-Crash.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Sept. 21, 2008,
Kenosha, WI
-
Helicopter crashes into home, 2 killed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-kenosha-crash-22-sep22,0,2704368.story
Sept. 5, 2008,
Oahu, HI
-
Coast Guard
HH-65 Dolphin ( MEDEVAC-type)
crashes into ocean, 4 killed
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080905/BREAKING01/309050013/-1/LOCALNEWSFRONT
*August
31, 2008,
Burney, IN -
Medical helicopter
explodes on impact in corn field,
3 killed
http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8929539
August 29, 2008,
Blue Eye, MO - crash in remote wooded area, 2
killed
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/775765.html
August 29, 2008,
Taney, AR - 2 killed
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880829039
August 17, 2008,
Olalla, WA - 1 killed, apparent power loss.
http://www.gateline.com/104/story/2150.html
August 5, 2008,
Trinity, CA - 9 killed, 4 seriously injured,
unexplained main rotor power failure on takeoff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/us/22brfs-005.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
July 19, 2008,
Price, UT - 3 killed
http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8705257
July 15, 2008,
Salesville, ARK - 2 killed, helicopter hits
power lines
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/25465364.html
July 4, 2008,
Livermore, CA - 2 killed, helicopter hits
power lines
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/04/BA3N11K66A.DTL&tsp=1
*June
29, 2008,
Flagstaff, AZ -
2 medical helicopters
collide,
7 killed, 3 injured
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/30/20080630helicoptercrash0630.html
*June
27, 2008,
Ash Fork, AZ -
Medical helicopter
crashes,
3 injured
http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a3b8a1b8-5f07-4f6f-ab09-56e9ff29e446
*June
8, 2008,
Walker County, TX -
Medical helicopter
crashes,
4 killed
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hivmN2f8FsdGgTpeir9_dPMK-SKQ
*May
30, 2008,
Pottsville, PA -
Medical helicopter crashes,
2 injured
http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=8405109&nav=5juw
*May 29, 2008,
Grand Rapids, MI -
Medical helicopter crashes on
hospital roof :
http://www.wwmt.com/articles/pilot_1349917___article.html/crash_helipad.html
May 25, 2008,
Lake of the Ozarks,
MO, 1 killed:
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080527/NEWS01/805270474
May 24, 2008,
Catalina,
CA, 3 killed, 3 injured:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080524-1331-ca-helicoptercrash.html
May 15,
2008,
Comstock,
MI, 1 killed:
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8336319&nav=0RceDeoo
*May 10, 2008, LaCrosse WI,
Medical helicopter crashes,
3 killed,
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlggrhdigQlDQmaZeT8nBAUWr7RQD90JQNUG0
April
24, 2008,
Victoria,
TX, 1 killed:
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/793/story/232591.html
April
18, 2008,
Fairmont,
WV, 1 killed:
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=37489
April
15, 2008,
Wilmington,
Alaska, 4 killed:
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/378511.html
March 13, 2008,
Wilmington,
NC, 1 killed:
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=8012186&nav=23iiQEwq
*Feb
5, 2008,
South Padre,
TX,
Medical helicopter crashes,
3 killed:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5520376.html
Jan
25, 2008,
Los Angeles
, CA, 1 killed:
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2008/01/helicopter-crash-on-la-freeway-kills.html
Jan
22, 2008,
Collier County
, FL, 2 killed:
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jan/22/two-killed-helicopter-crash-near-miami-dade-and-co/
Jan
16, 2008,
Nueces County
, TX, 3 killed:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january172008/navy_helo_crash_011708.php
---------------------------------------------------------------
"In the past five
years, more than 10 percent of air ambulance
helicopters crashed, a total of 84 accidents
resulting in 60 deaths. If patients knew of
these lethal statistics, many probably would choose
not to fly in EMS planes and helicopters."
http://publicsafety.com/article/article.jsp?id=3012&siteSection=22
_____________________________________
Johns Hopkins Study Determines:
Darkness More than Triples EMS Helicopter Crash Fatality Risk:
http://www.alea.org/public/safety/files/2006_EMS_Accident_Study.pdf _____________________________________
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