The Cost Effectiveness of Physician-Staffed Helicopter Emergency Medical Services – A Dutch Example
- Sep 1
- 1 min read
Economic analyses of the inclusion of physicians as part of inter-professional pre-hospital retrieval teams are rather scarce. Though, one important contributor to this body of evidence came out of a group in the Netherlands in 2009. This Dutch study examined whether physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) are worth their cost compared to regular ambulance-based emergency medical services (EMS) for patients with severe trauma.
Over four years, these researchers followed 781 patients admitted to a major trau
ma centre, comparing survival rates, quality of life two years after injury, and healthcare costs. Patients treated by HEMS were generally more severely injured but HEMS saved an estimated 29 additional lives during the study period. While long-term quality of life was similar between groups, the authors concluded that HEMS is cost-effective for severely injured trauma patients.
BC’s challenging geography, including many remote and rural areas, makes timely access to advanced trauma care difficult. Similar to the Netherlands, physician-staffed air medical teams could improve survival for patients in hard-to-reach locations. While upfront costs may be high, the findings suggest that with appropriate deployment criteria, such services could deliver good value for money in BC’s trauma system, especially in regions where rapid ground transport is not feasible.
