Air Medical Dispatch:
Guidelines for Trauma Scene Response
National Association of Emergency Medical Services Physicians

Position of the Association
The use of helicopters to transport patients is becoming the standard of care for many critically ill and injured persons requiring transportation to a specialized center. However, there is no well-established body of clinical literature that delineates the best criteria for dispatching a helicopter to an emergency scene. Air Medical Services Committee of the National Association for Emergency Medical Services Physicians (NAEMSP) has developed a set of guidelines for scene response by helicopters. These guidelines have been adopted as the official position of NAEMSP and are presented for use by the emergency medical services community.

A set of guidelines, whether brief or exhaustive, cannot foresee clinical or operational instances in which the helicopter medical crew may be useful at an emergency scene. In many respects, the local emergency clinician will be the best arbiter of this question in as much as the local clinician will have the most intimate understanding of regional resources. In presenting these guidelines, NAEMSP emphasizes the fundamental importance of closely integrating resources so that ground and air services mesh smoothly and efficiently in the best interest of the patients.

Submitted by the Air Medical Services Committee
Reviewed by the Standards and Clinical Practice Committee (Chair: Bart Tortella, MD)
Discussion written by: Nicholas Benson, MD, Daniel Hankins, MD, and David Wilcox, MD
Approved by the NAEMSP Executive Committee, 20 October 1990
Adapted to Position Paper format by Herbert G. Garrison, MD
January - March 1992